I Just Don't Understand It

I recently read an article in WORLD magazine where a Congressman read some of the material that the public schools use for sex education. It was truly appalling. While I appreciate WORLD keeping us abreast of what is happening, I actually tore those pages out so my children would not be subjected to the material. Many of the adults in Congress were squirming while it was being read because it made them so uncomfortable. Imagine, reading to children things that even most adults consider inappropriate.

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Then I ran into this over at the Common Room.

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I know things have been getting worse. In recent years when even Dr. Dobson was calling for Christians to remove their children from the public schools, I knew the situation was becoming critical.

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I have heard and read about the agenda in the public schools and the kinds of things the kids are being indoctrinated with. It makes me want to do something but since I homeschool I know it would not be effective. I don't have a dog in that race. But what about those in the system who are Christians and who are opposed to what is happening? Are they doing anything? If the public schools are a great mission field (which I have heard Christian parents say), where are the great missionaries? Surely we are not entrusting children with such a job. When I hear the statistics of adults who consider themselves Christians, I marvel that this propaganda can continue to be allowed. Do people not realize that ideas have consequences? Have we so been lulled into complacency that we don't even care? Or has the propaganda had it's desired effect and the parents actually think this is necessary? That this is the answer? I don't get it.

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Hasn't anyone out there read Brave New World? Oh, that's right. No one reads anymore. Maybe if they made a tv show out of it people might recognize a slippery slope when they see one.

Purple Makes Me Happy

Something kinda weird about me - purple makes me happy. It really does. I was sitting in the car, honking for the last stragglers to load up so we could go to a church meeting. Normally, this is a time when I get very irritable. I hate being late and I hate waiting. But when I looked up and saw my pretty purple clematis climbing up the stair rail, I had a wave of happy feeling come over me that overrode the irritation.

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I think maybe I started out liking purple when I was seven years old in order to imitate my step-mom. But it never went away. Now I involuntarily notice purple everywhere. My eye just draws to it. I don't think anyone really knows how much I love it. Almost every room in my house has something purple. The living room is tan, green and purple, the dining area and kitchen is painted solid purple, my dishes have purple irises on them, the upstairs bathroom is lavender, my bedroom is deep purple and white.

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Once when Candace was searching for a birthday present for me at a flea market, a sales clerk asked her if I collected anything. Candace replied, "Errr, purple. Anything purple."

Purple was very "in" a short time I ago and I was in my element. Purple things were available everywhere. I was tempted to stockpile everything purple. Now the fad is fading and other colors are replacing my own favorite.

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Thankfully, I have found an answer to being able to surround myself in purple despite retailer's fickle tastes. Purple flowers are my latest love - hydrangeas, hostas, larkspur, balloon flowers, irises. If it's purple, I like it. They make me feel like I'm in purple heaven. Even my potatoes are blooming purple. Ahhh.

Miscellaneous Goings On

I haven't been able to think of blog posts lately. We are just enjoying life and feeling very grateful.

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Everything is green and has finally recovered from the late freeze we had. We've been working in our garden and yard quite a bit. So far we have the tomatoes, peppers, peas, potatoes, strawberries, lettuce, and broccoli in. Today we hope to finish with the green beans, squash and cucumbers. My semi-new discovery in the garden has been landscape fabric. I love putting it down between the rows and avoiding weeding. We use hay or straw in between the plants and we have very little weeding to do.

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We tore down our pool after our puppy drowned in it and we are replacing it with a cobblestone-type patio. We have plans to install our little pond and some flowers and we're making a fire pit in the middle. The girls bought me a park bench for Mother's Day and it's going to be perfect out there. (The boys each got me beautiful cards and flowers. )

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Ford and Kenny (and even Lori) have been working hard on the additions down at the shop and they are hoping to start the digging of the lake soon. They are really hoping to have it done so we can use it this summer. They hope to bring in sand for a nice beach area and leave an island with a big tree on it in the middle. I'm having fun imagining get-togethers with volleyball and big bonfires on the beach, seeing the kids enjoy fishing, boating and swimming, camping on the island and having ducks.

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My sister, Lori, has also fully recovered from her last baby. The sound of hammers and saws can be heard through the woods on a regular basis. She's always tackling something - redoing a floor, drywall, ripping off a deck, etc. The other day she popped over to fulfill her promised birthday present to me and cut landscape timbers and cut out some steps that come down the hill from her house to ours. We just have to finish nailing the timbers down. Now you don't have to slide down the muddy bank into our screenroom. What a woman!

The Master Plan of Evangelism

Have I mentioned how much we love our church? Oh yeah, forty times or so. I think I mentioned before when we changed churches we expected to have to swallow quite a bit. It turned out quite the opposite. Instead we are constantly, even still, amazed at how much we love it and how excited we are. And not just over the people but the underlying principles that govern the church's actions.

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At a recent leadership meeting one of our pastors highly recommended the book The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert E. Coleman. We ordered it and began reading it aloud as a family at dinner (which is at noon) today. We've never been a family that has had a big interest in evangelism as is commonly practiced in our society but this book definitely has our interest. One thing we have been amazed at is how successful our church has been at reaching unchurched people and they do it with a large dose of REALITY. Being real and relevant while loving people not only draws them but keeps quite a few of them growing and in turn serving others. We immediately felt that not only would this be a place where we could give, but that there were things we could learn here.

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Back to the book. The first chapter describes Jesus' stradegy. He concentrated heavily on teaching and mentoring a few, while at the same time serving the multitudes. He "favored" a few because of His love for the multitudes and He had a plan to multiply His work on earth.

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"Yet, strangely enough, it is scarcely comprehended in practice today. Most of the evangelistic efforts of the church begin with the multitudes under the assumption that the church is qualified to preserve what good is done. The result is our spectacular emphasis on numbers of converts, candidates for baptism, and more members for the church, with little or no genuine concern manifested toward the establishment of these souls in the love and power of God, let along the preservation and continuation of the work."

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"Here is where we must begin just like Jesus. It will be slow, tedious, painful, and probably unnoticed by people at first, but the end result will be glorious, even if we don't live to see it. Seen this way, though, it becomes a big decision in the ministry. We must decide where we want our ministry to count - in the momentary applause of popular recognition or in the reproduction of our lives in a few chosen people who will carry on our work after we have gone. Really it is a question of which generation we are living for. "

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Several of us remarked on this last passage and how like homeschooling it is. How so many parents are giving up the approval or recognition from their peers and society because they are thinking ahead to the next generation. And how like Jesus' plan it is to spend the most intensive teaching time on a few.

Being a Helpmeet

You know when you have those times where there seems to be a theme in all you experience? Being a better helpmeet to my husband has been a theme for me lately. Shirley Solis of Lifetime Books gave me the CD of her lecture on the topic and we listened to it on the way home form Missouri.

I am also working my way through the Anne of Green Gables series. I am in the middle of Anne of Ingleside. Anne has to live with Gilbert's aunt who has come for a short visit but it has not been so short. This aunt "poisons" the home and makes everyone miserable. Gilbert does not do what several wish he would - kick her out. "He says he could never look himself in the face again if he turned his own flesh and blood out of doors", even though she has plenty of money and a home of her own. She is mean to the children and the household help and ruins every potential nice time together. She constantly complains and undermines Anne and makes her feel as if she doesn't belong in her own home. What would I do in those circumstances? Unless God had really got a hold of me, I can tell you it would be the exact opposite of what Anne does. What does Anne do? Does she explode with anger at Gilbert? Does she disrespect his spinelessness and unwillingness to stand up to his aunt and protect his family? Does she take matters into her own hands? No. She defers to Gilbert's sense of honor. She chides herself for complaining of such "little things" and feeling sorry for herself. Instead she embraces compassion for the friendless woman and ends up giving her a surprise birthday party. God blessed Anne in the end because the aunt ends up offended over the birthday party and finally leaves. But in her leaving, Anne can rest with a clear conscience and the knowledge that she chose Christian love.

With a little more free time this week I decided to borrow my sister's copy of Debi Pearl's Created to Be His Help Meet. It is such a chore for me to read these kind of books but I decided to give it a try. I've read the first few chapters this afternoon and it immediately put me in mind of the character of Anne. She demonstrates the qualities of a helpmeet with a joyful, merry and thankful heart.

All of these things sure shine the light where improvement is needed in my character. It's one thing to read these things and gain fresh inspiration to do good, but it's another to form habits that last long after the books are forgotten.

My middle name is Ann without the e. I need to become more like the "Anne with an e".

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**Update: A funny note. Tonight I sat on the porch swing reading to Annalise the next story in James Herriot's Treasury for Children. The story we are on is called The Market Square Dog and in it the country vet and his wife are all dressed up in their best clothes about to leave on a special rare date out when a policeman comes and brings a hurt dog. When Mr. Herriot apologizes to his wife because the care of the dog will prevent them from their plans, she graciously reassures him that she understands. And here is a quote from the story:

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"By the time we had finished, it was too late to go out anywhere, but Helen was quite cheerful. 'We can still have our picnic,' she said. We carried the sleeping dog out to the garden and laid him on a mat on the lawn so that we could watch him as he came round from the anaesthetic.

Out there in the old high-walled garden the sun shone down on the flowers and the apple trees. Helen put on her fancy hat again and I put my smart jacket back on and as we sat there, enjoying the good things from the picnic basket , we felt that we were still having a day out."

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Isn't that a beautiful example of a good wife bringing comfort to her husband and being thankful and cheerful and not pouting and scolding and feeling sorry for herself? Isn't it funny that this was in the story I read to my little girl tonight right after I wrote the above post? Hmmm.

Home Again

We are home after a fun time in Missouri. Pris and Kezzi especially had a grand time hanging out with the young people there. I spent lots of time with the young people too, hanging out and sitting down for meals and snacks with them. What a nice (and fun!) group of kids. Too bad they live so far away.

I bought quite a few things at the fair. I met the new owners of Lifetime Books and Gifts, Gus and Shirley Solis, and what a delightful and beautiful family they are. Shirley is so warm and friendly you immediately feel like you have always known her. She allowed Priscilla to move up from the basement, where she was not seeing much traffic, to share a little of their space. Priscilla immediately started selling more books. We listened to a couple of Shirley's workshops on the way home and Kezzi asked for copies to put in her hope chest. They were very good. Priscilla was a part of a panel of homeschool graduates that held a question and answer type of workshop. She did a great job, as did all of the graduates, and I was very proud of her.

On the way home I pondered an idea for a summer routine and decided to come home and try an experiment. You can read about it here on the Shadybrook daily blog.

Going on the Road

Today Priscilla, Kezzi and I are leaving for Springfield, Missouri. We will be at the SHEM curriculum fair where Pris will have a table selling the Grandmother's Hope Chest series that she has illustrated. So stop in and say hi if you happen to be there.

We are really looking forward to this trip. Our very dear friends are putting us up and I'm sure we will be having a grand time rushing in and out of the house and all getting ready with one bathroom!! My kids always love to go to Missouri and spend time with their friends and their friends' friends. I love it too.

Granny is My Hero Too.

I made Granny's Carnitas Burritos today. Make. Eat. Enough said.

Weekend Happenings

Ford, the boys and I spent Saturday building a chicken yard onto our chicken house. It was fun working together and swinging the hammer a little. We had chickens years ago but since then the fencing had fallen apart and the weeds had grown up so high you couldn't even see the chicken house. So it's almost ready now for a new batch of hens. We just have to finish tacking up the fencing and I'm going to repaint the little building. It looks so cute and farm-y.

Saturday evening a couple of young men from church joined us for dinner. For extra chaos, we invited my sister and her family to come over too. We had a lot of fun talking, laughing and playing games. These young men did the polite thing and offered to leave at a reasonable time but we were all enjoying ourselves so we reassured them we are late night people and they stayed pretty late. Luckily our church has a third service that doesn't start until 12:30 so we can all sleep in when we need to.

Tonight Candace and Priscilla came home from a meeting at church and both of them have decided to go on a mission trip in the fall. Priscilla is planning to go to Kenya and Candace to Spain. In Kenya Priscilla's group will travel around from village to village telling the gospel story with a story cloth, which they will leave in each village. Using art to tell a story is right up her alley. Spain is not so receptive to missionaries so Candace's group will be doing more one on one talking to people on the streeets, passing out water, Bibles and DVD's that tell the story of Jesus. Candace is so good at meeting people and talking to strangers so this sounds perfect for her too. I'm so excited for them and so glad they are taking advantage of this time in their lives to experience new things and places.

We have a busy next couple of days. The girls and I are cooking for a women's gathering at church Tuesday night. Normally a group of ladies share the cooking chore but we thought it would be fun to give them a break and do the cooking ourselves. We will prepare enough for fifty but there will probably be less than that. After all fifty is only five times more than a normal dinner for us to make. We always enjoy these meetings and we're looking forward to serving.

Our Studies

So far our nature studies with the Kamana program are going quite well. I did decide to slow the pace down a bit and really give them time to absorb the new awareness activity so we most likely will not finish the first part of the book in the prescribed 12 days. And I realized there is no way we could do both Kamana and the Moon Journals at the same time so once again, the moon journals are taking a back seat, hopefully to be picked up later.

I am very pleased with the interest the kids have in the Kamana program. We have had to filter through the Native American thanking Grandmother Moon stuff, and instead we thank our Creator for His creation and read what God' view of nature is, but learning about a different worldview has been interesting too. Last night on the way home from church, the girls were talking about everything they have to look forward to and Hope mentioned the Kamana studies and said she was excited to have this to do during the summer.

Today at lunch Luke was describing a pair of goldfinches that he had watched bathing in the creek and Hope told of a pair of cardinals that visits near her secret spot each day. Kezzi came in telling about a red-tailed hawk that flew over while crying out. These were just a few of the observations that were discussed over lunch. Abel told of a yellow-jacket that landed on him and left some "spit" and how he had smelled it and that it had a strange smell. I highly doubt he would have thought to smell it had it not been for that idea being presented in our Kamana studies.

One of the recent activities we did was thinking about where we were and what it looked like from a bird's eye view and drawing a map of that. Everyone has seemed to really enjoy making these maps and I have seen many extras lying around the house.

Sometimes I am plagued with things we do not do and I know there are others who do so much more. We have never been successful with a foreign language, for example. Many "great" books are way above us and we can't manage to muster up enough interest to tackle them still. Spelling...ugh...we are making progress, but ugh.

But when I think of my kids' day today, how in addition to all of this great nature study some of them sat crowded around the book of Greek myths while listening to a wonderful audio version, how they heard a true story about a boy who grew up with Cherokee grandparents in the mountains, how they learned a little about one of these great United States and heard Solomon's prayers as he dedicated the great temple to God, that they can go out and enjoy the beautiful sunshine while they read a good book and write about the thoughts that that book inspires, that they have time in the afternoon and evening to dwell on what they are learning in addition to time spent fellowshipping with family and friends, I am very thankful for the opportunity to have them learning at home. The good times still outweigh the bad.

Tasting the Fruit

As we've been working through our naturalist training with the Kamana program, I'm pleased to see connections with Charlotte Mason's methods and the fruit they bring. It is easy to see how the children have already been trained to pay attention to detail since we've been doing nature journals for many years now. Drawing the local flora and fauna of the region demands attention to detail. Field guides are some of the first books they begin to use for themselves, before they can even read well. Not only nature study but picture study and narration have also provided training in attention.

When you read about these methods and begin practicing them, it takes faith. Often you think, "Can it be that simple?" Can we just read good books and talk about them? Will hanging up pictures by different artists and spending 5-10 minutes looking at the detail every so often really do anything? Will playing the music of great composers and maybe occasionally reading a short biography lead to a love of great music? Can scientific knowledge be gained by just going for a walk and finding something to draw in your nature notebook? These truly are seeds and by planting the habits, watering and pulling out the weeds, they will grow. There will be fruit.

The fruit is opening your eighteen year old daughter's cd case and seeing Vivaldi and Brahms CD's among the other music. The fruit is when your sixteen year old says she wants to get up extra early to go to spend time at her special place in the woods or when she asks for a great man of history's autobiography to read outside of "school time". The fruit is when your nineteen year old wants to study writing and yes, she may still need some help with the mechanics but she has so much to say and she says it with style.

It's always easy, for me at least, to see the mistakes I have made or the bad habits I have allowed to go unchecked. So it's really rewarding to have those times when you look back and see things that you've done right, things that bear good fruit. It's good to jot down those realizations in a journal somewhere so you can look back on them during the times when it you feel hopelessly discouraged and it seems everything is going wrong.

Ok, So I've Got a Ways to Go

We are all enjoying our new studies with the Kamana program. The first few lessons have been about encouraging Awareness, which I am in great need of. I am not the most observant person, to put it mildly.

Once I walked up onto my mother's front porch and entered her house. She asked, "Do you like my new porch furniture?" Er, new porch furniture? There was furniture out there? Sure enough, beautiful WHITE wicker porch furniture with pretty floral cushions. How could I miss those? This really slapped me in the face. I'm too quick and intent on what I'm doing or thinking to notice much. Not good. Especially when it comes to wanting to know more about nature, not to mention people.

Another little example. Yesterday we were up at the lake. Instead of being my usual lazy self and staying on the beach with my World magazine or a book catalog, I got up and slowly starting walking down the beach looking for THINGS. I was so proud of myself because I found a string of amphibian eggs and some small mammal tracks up near the water. I noticed the black skippers flying around. Fun. The boys and Annalise had joined me. Luke pointed out a HUGE toad nestled in a little spot right on the water's edge. How had I missed that? Well, it did look a lot like a leaf if you didn't look directly at it. We stopped and looked at a little area where Luke thought might have fish and they saw one. I saw a very large one beyond where they were looking and when I pointed it out they were amazed at it's size. I was amazed that I had been the one to see it.

So, I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself noticing different plants around the lake. I had spent the drive up noticing the wildflowers that we already knew the names of and even stopped to look closely at one I had never seen before. I looked it up in the Reader's Digest Field Guide that I had brought with me and found it was a dwarf blue flag - so cute! We continued our walk around the lake, realizing this walk may not have been the smartest thing since no one was around and this was very near the location of a bear attack last year when a girl just Annalise's age was killed. We started making contingency plans just in case. We made it back close to the beach when I saw a beautiful bank of violets. I sat down to examine them closer with my field guide. I swept one large red ant off of my leg and in the back of my mind, I wondered if maybe I was near an anthill. Then Annalise tells me there is a bug on my back, another ant. I figure I better stand up and look around. There I was sitting smack dab on top of an anthill while I was trying to the learn the difference between violet species. I did identify this Arrowleaf Violet. And at least I didn't get bit (or do they sting?) by the ants.

A Thank You From the Becks

The Becks have posted a thank you on their blog with a picture of the farm house they are living in here. Stop on over for a visit.

From Child to Woman

So, Candace is home. It's nice to see her face again. Annalise is especially happy to have her whole family together again. She was plagued with some bad dreams, the latest of which all of the girls got married, her brothers were always away golfing and her cousin, John, never came over. Her worst nightmare.

I've been marveling over the experience of having two grown children. It's rather nice. Both of them have been in some difficult circumstances this last year that have tested their characters and both of them have reacted in ways that have greatly boosted my confidence in their decision making abilities. Not that they will make every decision as I would, but that they are thoughtful and purposeful in their decisions. They have stood against temptations and made right choices. Even when they have been released from our control, they have held to many of the same principles they were raised with. Ahhh. That's the sound of a mother's heart at rest for a moment.

I do not expect that they will never make mistakes. I hope I have learned enough and have been reminded enough that we all have a fallen nature and are all bound to need picking up from time to time. I pray that I can do that for them without wallowing in my own disappointment and pride.

I'm really basking in the thought of two children raised. I've never really resented the burden of responsibility of children, in fact I longed to be a mother from a very young age and I'm so glad I have so many more, but it's a satisfied feeling to have that burden lifted and see it placed on the grown child themselves. It satisfying to see them shoulder that burden and not stagger under its weight. And I'm more and more convinced that timing is everything.

What Has L'Abri Done To Me?

The intence blitz-clean-out of the mind of C&ace!!!

L'abri is such a great place to get away and really dig deep. Being here is really causing me to challenge myself, my thinking, and my beliefs. To look inward and organize and clean up the clutterd rooms in my mind. I've not only been organizing but I've been cleaning the windows and letting in the light so I can see to clean and I can also see out better. I've found a whole lot in my mind that is obviously garbage that I am throwing out. Things that have been so mixed in with good things that I didn't see how ungodly some of it was. My views and expectations of God, myself, and others were a bigger mess then I realized!

Growing up from child to an adult can be a messy process! Trying to sort through all the voices around telling you what is right and wrong mixed and jumbled with what is Biblical and what is just interpretation. Wanting to please God and People and Me and finding out that you very rarely can do all three. The fight to become an adult and the still wanting to cling to the safety and simplicity of childhood. Working through all of that with the added fact that, especilly since I am the oldest, my parents are very new at dealing with a child of theirs transforming into the adult realm. They have struggled with knowing what should change and what should not. On top of all that I have the added burden of knowing that I have 6 younger sibblings watching me and I have a perfectionistic personallity. Which keeps me constantly kicking myself.

So I've been away from all the voices that I am so used to hearing, and living with 20 different people from increadibly diverse backgrounds. For three intense weeks I've been living in an environment where if one doesn't challenge you on one thing then someone else will. No hidden corner of one's mind will be overlooked and no stone will be left unturned. I have been forced to question everything and I've also got to listen to the vast array of others questions.

So I feel so much more secure with how Christ views me and it seems like I've grown up more in this one month then I have in five years. I understand and know that what I believe is mine and not just (taking on someone elses views because I don't trust my own). I should NEVER trust someone elses views and should always question theirs and my own. I am called to always bring things I think and believe before God and test them against the bible and what God's message is in the whole of the scriptures and not merely one or two small passages.

The Life of Heaven

I'm reading through the Anne of Green Gables series and really enjoying it. I have come across quite a few quotes that I want to write in my journal but I'm usually reading in bed before going to sleep and don't have any way to mark them close at hand. Last night,for a change, I did have a pen on my nightstand. This quote is regarding one of Anne's friends who is dying (from Anne of the Island).

"When she came to the end of one life it must not be to face the next with the shrinking terror of something wholly different- something for which accustomed thought and ideal and aspiration had unfitted her. The little things of life, sweet and excellent in their place, must not be the things lived for; the highest must be sought and followed; the life of heaven must be begun here on earth. "

This put me in mind of many things. Especially my friends who just lost many "sweet and excellent little things of life". I'm thankful that those things have not been what they have lived for. They have spent time seeking higher things. Their unselfish service has come back to them in the giving of help after their hardship of losing so much. Here they are, just a week after the fire, and many, many things have already been replaced. Some things will not be able to be replaced, of course. The reason they can not be replaced is because their value did not lie in the objects themselves, but in the fact that they represented bigger things in life - relationships and special moments shared with others. I know what they are going through is difficult, but not nearly so difficult as it would have been had they lived for those things.

It is true...the life of heaven must be begun here on earth.

Update on the Refurnishing Effort

First of all, thank you to all of you who have been praying for this family and sending gift certificates and books. They have received many wonderful donations of clothing, dishes, towels and beds,etc. A local appliance store donated all of their appliances. A man from their church owns an ebay company called NuMarket and he had me come to his warehouse where he filled my van up with a lot of new items for them. The Ambleside Online list members and other homeschoolers have been very helpful in sending many wonderful books. The family has been very grateful and overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone.

The things that are still needed are a few larger items and school supplies that would be unlikely for people to have on hand to donate. If any of you would still like to help, gift certificates (ie. Wal-mart or amazon.com ) or deposits into the bank account that has been set up for donations would be the best way. If you need information about where to send these, email me at shadybrookacres@gmail.com.

Thanks again and bless you all!

Losing it All

****Update: Our friends have rented a large farmhouse. I've been busy soliciting donations from local businesses and people and trying to help get them set up in a home again. Tomorrow they will begin moving in to the new house. It's been quite an experience and I've been touched by people's compassion and generosity. One woman called me today who had lost her 1 yo in a fire and wanted to help them by sending some clothes.

As many of you homeschoolers will know, the loss of their books and homeschooling materials was very hard. When you take years to build a home library and watch it all burn in minutes, it is very disheartening to say the least. Clothes and other household items are the first to come in, but not everyone can appreciate the need for books. If any of you would like to buy amazon gift cards so they can begin replacing their lost books, you can do this online and send it to my email address - shadybrookacres@gmail.com . I am trying to get things together for them as soon as possible because I know they will appreciate doing something "normal" with some old familiar book-friends.

This evening I watched my dear friend's home burn. Nearly every possession that was dear to her is gone. All of her pictures, heirlooms, books, clothing, dishes...everything. We watched it go even though many firefighters worked hard to save what they could. I thank God that no lives were lost and that no one was hurt but it was still hard watching it burn.

And I thank God that my son left his shoes at their house and that I suggested Priscilla go over there this evening to retrieve them.

You see, Priscilla bought a new car today and wanted to take her brothers for a ride. So I suggested she go get her brother's shoes from my friend's house where he left them a couple of days ago. The family was resting after a hard day's work in the yard. My friend was dozing in a chair, while five of her children were watching cartoons and some of them were dozing too. (Her oldest 12yoson was away.) They awoke to Priscilla knocking at the door. After getting the shoes for her, some of them came out the front door to the driveway to see her car. One of the boys came through the walk-out basement out to the driveway and he saw that there was a fire in their basement, where he had just been a few minutes before to fetch the sought-after shoes, but there was no fire then. He ran outside and told his mom.

My friend ran in to wake her husband, who was sleeping in their basement bedroom (with no windows). He ran through the fire and when he came outside he tried to open the garage door when flames leaped out and singed his hair. (Their garage was a part of the walk-out basement) Two of the children who were still in the house came out right away. Within minutes smoke was pouring out of the upstairs windows. The children were put into Priscilla's car and she drove them to the neighbors.

911 was called. Neighbors were called. We were called. I could see the smoke very soon after we left our house. By the time I got there fire trucks were everywhere but the flames were consuming the house. The majority of the roof was gone. We sat on the grass and watched in shock. Over and over we thought about if Priscilla had not come over and disturbed them and asked them to come outside to see her car, her husband would very possibly have been trapped in the back corner of the basement. And possibly other loss of life. It happened so fast.

I am very sober tonight with the thought of how quickly our lives can be changed. And at how many little things came together and affected the sequence of events. I was so irritated that my son had left those shoes there. And now I am so grateful. SO VERY GRATEFUL.

More on the Stars

As I said, I've been looking at the stars lately. And after reading Witness of the Stars years ago, I have been fascinated by them. Often I have tried to tell others about the constellations but they have been such feeble attempts as expressing the wonder of it all. I have now become determined to begin to try to absorb this information so I can actually narrate it with some amount of intelligence, instead of fumbling around for bits and pieces of the story.

I posted last year about "my" mountains here and how they have been a place I go to gaze at God's wonderful creation and spend time with God. You can go to that post and see a tiny piece of the panoramic view.

This morning, as I was drawing my nighttime mountain scene with the constellations, I took out my books and started looking up the names of the stars in the constellations I had found. Back when I was reading Witness of the Stars, the part that really touched me and brought me to tears, was when I got to the information about the ship that brings it's passengers to the safety of the greater and lesser sheepfolds. I didn't remember which constellations they were in. This morning I found one and it's significance amazes me.

When I set my chair up facing the mountains (that scene in that older post) I look directly up to the sign of Cancer. The modern symbol is that of a crab but the ancient star meanings say nothing that would encourage that interpretation. Instead here is some of the ancient names and meanings of the stars in that group:

The Arabic name for this sign is Al Sartan - who holds or binds
The Denderah name is Klaria - cattle folds
Greek name is Karkinos - holding or encircling of which the latin word is Cancer
The Latin Cancer: Khan - travellers rest or in, and Cer is Arabic for circling

Some of the star names in this group are:
Tegmine - holding, Acubene - (Hebrew and Arabic) sheltering or hiding place, Ma'alaph - assembled thousands, Al Himarein - kids or lambs

In the center of this sign is a bright cluster of stars, of which the ancient name is Praesepe, which means a mulitutde, offspring.

This sign of cancer speaks of a protected resting place for the Lord's offspring, his sheep. A place where the travellers are brought safely home after all of the conflict is over. How amazing is that, that in the place I go to find rest in Him, I look directly up and see a sign of THE REST that is to come. A rest for God's people that has been planned since the beginning of time. A part of the story that God has had in the heavens, in plain view for thousands of years. Before there was His story in writing, he wrote it in the heavens.

He telleth the number of the stars,
He giveth them all their names.
Psalm 147:4

My Own Starry Night

I have been taking a lot of little walks lately. It's amazing what getting out in the fresh air and looking at the natural world does for you. Last night I took a walk to the top of the hill to see if the moon was up yet. I could barely see the light growing in the spot where it was to come up. Since I was a bit chilly, and I realized I had a few minutes, I went back to the house for a blanket and I grabbed our Glow In The Dark Night Sky Book and a flashlight. I went back up, and boy, what a treat.

We have a panoramic view of the mountains at the top of our hill. The view of the stars away from all household lights is incredible, especially when you add the backdrop of the shadowy mountains. I wish I knew how to take a night time shot that would do the scene justice.

I spent my time waiting for the moon finding the winter constellations in the book. I was able to find four of them from my seat. I became much more interested in the constellations when I read Witness of the Stars by Bullinger. It makes the verse "The heavens declare the glory of God" take on much more depth of meaning.

So, there I was, wrapped in a blanket, enjoying the stars and my glow-in-the-dark constellations when I remembered to look for the moon. Just in time, I saw the top sliver just coming up over the mountains. I involuntarily took a deep breath. It was so beautiful.

How is it that I have been so neglectful to take the time to enjoy this regular spectacular sight? And all I have to do is walk out my front door and up a little hill.