Recap of the 2008-2009 School Year

I am going to be better about blogging here. Here is the run down of the school year that just ended:

HISTORY - Big score with a combination of Biography of America from Annenburg Media, the CLEP US History I book, The History of US by Joy Hakim, and the history component of the American Literature class. My kids are studying for the CLEP now. We only got through Reconstruction, but we are good with that. We tried to follow along with the American Literature timeline, and she really spent a very short amount of time after Reconstruction.

AMERICAN LITERATURE - Big score here too. Thelma English is the bomb. I was able to edit out her tangents on the lectures, have the kids take the quizzes in the quiet of their own homes, and leave enough time for a little more freedom for the two hour class time as a result. We all learned so much about the different eras of literature. My kids really loved it. They especially liked reading Uncle Tom's Cabin and Huckleberry Finn. Two thumbs up.

They read author biographies and syllabus (300+ pages), and books. Here is a list of the "works" they read:

"Mayflower Compact"

"Arabella Covenant"

"How to Spend a Day with God"

"Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson"

"Narrative of Jonathan Edwards"

Declaration of Independence

Constitution of the United States

Anna Bradstreet - To My Husband and Other Poems
Thomas Paine- Common Sense
Benjamin Franklin – Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Ralph Waldo Emerson- "Self Reliance" and "Nature
Henry David Thoreau – "Civil Disobedience"
Henry David Thoreau – Walden; or, Life in the Woods (Just 25-35 pages)
Frederick Douglas – Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas
Louisa May Alcot- "My Contraband" and "A Night" (they thought they were boring)
Mark Twain- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (loved)

Mark Twain- Humorous Stories and Sketches (loved)
Great American Short Stories (including Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart, Melville's "Bartleby", Harte's "Luck of Roaring", London's "To Build a Fire", Hemingway's "The Killers", Fitzgerald's "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown", Crane's "Open Boat" and "Bride Comes to Yellow Sky", Steinbeck's "The Red Pony".)
101 Great American Poems (Just Poe's "The Raven", Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!", Crane's "War is Kind", Dickinson's "Stop for Death".)
O’Henry- (W.S.Porter) The Gift of the Magi
Harriet Beecher Stowe - Uncle Tom's Cabin (their favorite)

ENGLISH/WRITING - The kids had fifteen writing assignments for the American Literature class (I skipped one and adapted another though). Paul did Daily Grams and Michael did Nitty-Gritty Grammar review.


MATH - Bob Jones Geometry and Pre-Algebra. It wasn't broke. So, we didn't fix it. Michael will switch to Teaching Textbooks Algebra II since I got it for only $30 used! It is also beyond my schooling. So, he will need the tutoring. Paul will do Algebra I.

SCIENCE - Michael completed the entire Cornell Handbook of Bird Biology (Michael says it is "No handbook. It is so huge!). I am going to order the tests now and have him do the course of certification because some colleges accept it as credit. Paul started the BJU Biology, but it is a high school text, and he just wasn't ready for it. I am going to switch him to Apologia Biology next year because that is a little bit more user-friendly for him. He isn't as much of a science guy as Michael. We started the Biology lab in co-op, but they used a different text, and it was too much work to have to match the two courses. Consequently, Biology lab will be a part of summer school, and I am going to get GEORGE to handle it by doing "Biology Blitz" Saturdays where we do a bunch of labs in one day. It should be fun for them to do together. :) Sherri is selling me Adam's book and lending us his cool microscope. :)

BIBLE - Michael just informed me that he finished the Pentateuch! My goal is to have them read through the entire Bible by the time they are done with high school. They both read through the New Testament last year. So, they are on their way. Paul is in Exodus. They are also journaling daily. :)

READING - My kids still do a "DEAR" time, and I think this gets lost in schools and even homeschool with the onslaught of more rigorous subjects.

Michael's Pleasure Reading:

The Tin Woodman of Oz
Rink-i-Tink in Oz
The Lost Princess of Oz
The Case of the Blazing Sky
The Quest for the Great White Quail

Paul's Pleasure Reading List:
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
Tripod Trilogy
Hank the Cowdog (about 5 of them)

CO-OP - They did American Government in the fall with many presentations. That was really healthy for my kids to get in front of people. Paul did great for his first time. Michael was very well prepared for both and had fun doing video with Adam and Joe for his Bill of Rights talk. They switched to Critical Thinking with Nikki and learned quite a bit (she is a very good teacher). They had a debate unit too and debated some aspect of renewable energy production. Then, we finished up the year with studying the history of the abolition of the slave trade using the movie Amazing Grace as a springboard. It worked out nicely, but it was too much for me to do that AND the American Literature class on the same day.

MOVIE MAKING - Another aspect of the co-op was the movie Road to Freedom written and directed by Bethany. Michael had a minor part, and Paul helped hold the boom microphone during those scenes. It was quite a bit of time and driving around, but it was really fun for the kids. Two thumbs up (even though is was sometimes a royal pain to have so many last minute schedule changes). Thinking about signing them up for the Corvallis High School film making camp so they can use their equipment. The boys also did movies with their friends every other Friday and one Saturday a month

PLAYS and FIELD TRIPS - We didn't do that many field trips this year. Trying to think of any? We did go to about four plays. This is much less than we used to do, but the kids are getting too old for some of the ones that are offered. So, we are good with phasing that out since we had their "fine arts" in the movie making.

DRAWING - Shannon P. led a drawing class that was really good. I didn't particularly care for the hassles associated with the Tuesday School, but the kids learned some wonderful things, and I am still looking for a teacher for Michael and Paul to improve their drawing/art talent.

PIANO - Paul did great at the slower pace of every other week. We liked this much better and combined it with our Dial-a-Book days to combine the driving time (so green!).

TYPING - Mavis Beacon

COMMUNITY SERVICE - In addition to our regular Dial-a-Book twice a month, we served at the Southside Youth Outreach dinner twice and Benton Food Share twice (labels for their mailing and postal workers can drive). We also raised money and walked in the Alzheimer's Walk in Eugene. It was a good year.

WHEW! This post has taken me entirely TOO long, but it was fun to review the year.

Tuesday Musings

I don't write here as much as I did back in 2006-2007 when I was still processing my "detox" from an unhealthy situation. Now that I have such healthy leadership and caring church family, there is not the need to process a bunch of stuff. Thus why I don't journal here as much. I should do it more though because when I started this blog is was all about what I was learning with my kids.

The year of 2006-2007 was a journey to wellness emotionally so that was the majority of my musings. It was amazing how much I was stifled and held back from emotional health because of the environment that I continued in for so many years. I knew that it was REALLY unhealthy for the last fifteen years of it too! I guess I am just an eternal optimist about things like this.

Well, there went my morning. I was planning on journaling here for a while, and E. Smith called, and we were on the phone for 1 1/2 hours.

Ack!

Musings at 1:15 am

Another night where I can't seem to get to sleep early. I am not restless or stuggling with a thing. Just enjoying some time in the Word and don't want to stop. I suppose that is a good reason to stay up. :)

Speak Lord, I'm listening!

Finished with The Well-Educated Mind Dramas!

It took me about a year, but I got through all of them!

In Prayer

I am on the verge of Spring Break and am looking forward to an extended prayer time! I love this poem from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions that we read in American Literature yesterday.

In Prayer

O LORD,

In prayer I launch far out into the eternal world,

and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs

over all evils on the shores of mortality.

Time, with its gay amusements and cruel disappointments

never appears so inconsiderate as then.

In prayer I see myself as nothing;

I find my heart going after thee with intensity,

and long with vehement thirst to live to thee.

Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit

that speed me on my way to the New Jerusalem.

In prayer all things here below vanish,

and nothing seems important

but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.

In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear,

and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.

In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts

at what thou are doing for thy church,

and I long that thou shouldest get thyself a great name

from sinners returning to Zion.

In prayer I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life,

and taste heavenly joys;

entering into the eternal world

I can give myself to to thee with all my heart,

to be entirely at thy disposal,

having no will or interest of my own.

In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers,

sinners, the church, thy kingdom to come,

with greatest freedom, ardent hopes,

as a son to his father,

as a lover to the beloved.

Help me to be all prayer and never cease praying.

Peace

You know, it has been a long time since I talked about my heart wellness. Not sure what to say other than, I just don't have the angst that I had just a few short years ago. June 16, 2006 was my departure from crazymaking dynamics, and we give glory to God for leading us into healthy relationships ever since! It hasn't been without heartache and sorrow through the last 2 years.

Our Hope Alone

Discussions with Bible Book Club on Monday night about Ecclesiastes and a long talk with Kim about the possibilities of losing everything in this economy prompted me to read the interchange between Jemimah and Job in both settings.

From The Misery of Job and The Mercy of God by John Piper:

"So you think God was kind to make
You sick," Jemimah asked, "and take
Away your health and all your sons
And friends, and daughters--all the onesYou loved."

"Jemimah, what I think
is this: The Lord has made me drink
the cup of his severity
That he might kindly show to me
What I would be when only he
Remains in my calamity.
Unkindly he has kindly shown
That he was not my hope alone."

May He be our hope alone.

Quote from Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren F. Winner

Her thoughts on the Jewish marriage ceremony compared to Christian ones:

The vows in the Jewish wedding ceremony are simple. As the groom puts the ring on the bride's finger, he says, "Behold, you are consecrated to me according to the laws of Moses and Israel." Then comes the reading of the ketubah, a contract dating at least to the second century CE. The traditional version names the date and place of the wedding, and then details the monetary settlement the groom will owe the bride in case of divorce . . . I remember once upon a time thinking that this was a very grave but profound and insightful way to begin a marriage , this recognition of the possibility of failure. I now feel discomfited when sitting through this segment of Jewish weddings, when it is laid bare that I am indeed watching a contractual agreement, not a sacramental covenant; and I have to remind myself that Hebrew Scripture, Old Testament permits divorce under many circumstance. It is only with Jesus' stern words to the Pharisees that divorce became a very occasional exception to the ever more normative lifelong marriage.

"In this nuptial particular, I feel that Christianity tells the best story. But theology, I realize, is different from sociology, and the statistics --which show evangelical Christians divorcing at a rate just slightly higher than that of the rest of America -- suggest that however perfect in theory, that something about Christian marriage-making (Or, at least, Christian marriage-keeping) does not work. And here is where Jewish nuptials, depressing ketubah makes my shoulders tense up, everything that surround the ketubah makes good sense. I wish we could import some of it to the church."

". . . Under the chuppah (four cornered canopy that symbolizes among other things "the sure protection of God's love."), after the exchange of rings and the reading of the ketubah and the pronouncing of blessings, comes the famous breaking of glass--the groom crushes a goblet (wrapped in a packet or bag, of course) under his feet. The broken glass warns of the frailty of marriage. It also recalls the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, a somber comment of Jewish history that should be remembered at even the most joyous occasions. Another interpretation hold that the loud crunch of the glass scares off all demons who might have been hanging around, plotting to trip up the wedding party . . ."

The Misery of Job and the Mercy of God by John Piper

"He is not poor nor much enticed
Who loses everything for Christ.
It won't be long before the rod
Becomes the tender kiss of God."

Between Two Worlds: I Think My Wife's a Calvinist

Between Two Worlds: I Think My Wife's a Calvinist



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Why Thoreau Lived at Walden Pond

Walden's "Where I Lived, & What I Lived for," he describes an additional motive...

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Notes from the conclusion of Walden

"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. "

"Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his compainions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults, even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may have perhaps some pleasant, thirlling glorious hours, even in a poor-house. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's above; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. . . Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage . . . It is life near the bone where it is sweetest . . . Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul.”

"I delight to come to my bearings -- not walk in procession with pomp and parade, in a conspicuous place, but to walk even with the Builder of the universe, if I may --not to live in this restless, nervous, bustling, trivial Nineteenth Century, but stand or sit thoughtfully while it goes by."

"As I stand over the insect crawling amid the pine needles on the forest floor, and endeavoring to conceal itself from my sight, and ask myself why it will cherish those humble thoughts and hide its head from me who might, perhaps, be its benefactor, and impart to its race some cheering information, I am reminded of the greater Benefactor and Intelligence that stands over me the human insect."

Other Famous Quotes from Walden

" The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."

(Explanation from Sparknotes.com: This sentence, which appears in the first chapter, “Economy,” is perhaps the most famous quotation from Walden. It sums up the prophetic side of Thoreau that many people forget about; he was not just an experimenter living in isolation on Walden Pond, but also a deeply social and morally inspired writer with an ardent message for the masses. His use of the word “desperation” instead of a milder reference to discontentment or unhappiness shows the grimness of his vision of the mainstream American lifestyle. He believes that the monomaniacal pursuit of success and wealth has paradoxically cheapened the lives of those engaged in it, making them unable to appreciate the simpler pleasures enumerated in Walden. But the unpleasantness of American life, according to Thoreau, is more than simply financial or economic, despite the title of his first chapter. “Desperation” is also a word with deep religious connotations, the “lack of hope” that, according to Dante (one of Thoreau's favorite writers), was inscribed on the gates at hell's entrance. The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan's Protestant spiritual classic and a bestseller in the New England of Thoreau's day, features a hero who passes through a bleak lowland called the Slough of Despair on his way to meet God. By asserting that most humans have gotten stuck in despair, Thoreau is implying that they are unable to continue farther on their pilgrimage toward true redemption.)


From Conclusion: "It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar."

Wednesday Ramblings

It has been two weeks since I have posted anything. Since that time, we have had lovely visits from Shane to speak at the Perspectives course and Julie to go with me to the beach. We went to Bayshore Bella Vista and enjoyed good food and deep talks about life. Middle age is so grand.

When we came back to Corvallis, we went to the Darkside for Doubt. Did he do it or didn't he? That is the question. Julie thinks he did. I think he didn't. Mainly because I am a Jane and she is a Lizzy!! LOL!

I came back tired though and have been sick since I came back. I am reading Walden and listening to Uncle Tom's Cabin with my kids on a free LibriVox recording. It is the same guy reading it, and he is GOOD. I can't believe he would be an amateur! It is all free.

Wednesday's Goals

Burn more energy than I consume
Read Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Papa's Wife
Pray through and post Job 27 on BBC. Pray for those needs pressing.
Meet with Nourieh for Genesis
Prepare for Sunday's class
Workout with George at club and fix something healthy for dinner
Load of laundry

(I did everything but the load and Papa's Wife, but I did the load on Thursday)

Twas The Month After Christmas

Twas the month after Christmas,
and all through the house,
Nothing would fit me,
not even a blouse.

The cookies I'd nibbled,
the chocolate I'd taste
At the holiday parties
had gone to my waist.

When I got on the scales
there arose such a number!
When I walked to the store
(less a walk than a lumber),

I'd remember the marvellous meals I'd prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,
The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese
And the way I'd never said, "No thank you, please."

As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt...
I said to myself, as I only can,
"You can't spend a winter, disguised as a man!"

So, away with the last of the sour cream dip.
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip.
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished
Till all the additional ounces have vanished.

I won't have a cookie, not even a lick.
I'll want only to chew on a long celery stick.
I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie.
I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.

I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore...
But isn't that what January is for?
Unable to giggle, no longer a riot:
Happy New Year to all, and to all a good diet!

If They Had Lived to See This Day

"In order to be successful in any kind of undertaking, I think the main thing is for one to grow to the point where he completely forgets himself; that is, to lose himself in a great cause. In proportion as one loses himself in this way, in the same degree does he get the highest happiness out of his work." - Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery




It is in the Providence of God that I would be reading these books the week prior to the inauguration of the first black president of the United States of America. Could they have even dreamed of this day?

Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington both rose up out of slavery by hard work and industry and better the black man and woman. Their lives were inspiring.

My children and I watched a video from the Biography of America. You can register for free and watch the important video on "Slavery." I wept through most of the 26 minutes.

100 Classic Books You Must Read Before You Die

This is based on the Penguin Classic's list of "100 Classic Books You Must Read Before You Die". http://www.listsofbests.com/list/11632. Its for people reading them, wanting to read them or wishing they hadn't read them LOL.

1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
2. Diary of a Madman and Other Stories - Nikolai Gogol
3. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys
4. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
5. Notes From Underground - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
6. Story of the Eye - Georges Bataille
7. Spy In House Of Love: V4 In Nin'S Continuous Novel - Anais Nin
8. Lady Chatterly's Lover - D.H.Lawrence
9. Venus in Furs - Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
10. The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
11. The Karamazov Brothers - Fyodor Dostoevsky
12. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
13. Diamonds Are Forever - Ian Fleming
14. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
15. The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad
16. A Room With a View - E. M. Forster
17. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
18. Don Juan - Lord George Gordon Byron
19. Love in a Cold Climate- Nancy Mitford
20. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - Tennessee Williams
21. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
22. Middlemarch - George Eliot
23. She: A History of Adventure - H. Rider Haggard
24. The Fight - by Norman Mailer
25. No Easy Walk to Freedom - Nelson Mandela
26. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
27. The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
28. Notre-Dame of Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) - Victor Hugo
29. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
30. The Old Curiosity Shop - Charles Dickens
31. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
32. Bram Stoker's Dracula - Bram Stoker
33. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
34. The Castle of Otranto - Horace Walpole
35. The Turn of the Screw - Henry James
36. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
37. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
38. Baby doll - Tennessee Williams
39. Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote
40. Emma - Jane Austen
41. On the Road - Jack Kerouac
42. The Odyssey - Homer
43. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
44. Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome
45. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
46. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
47. Vile Bodies - Evelyn Waugh
48. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
49. The Beautiful and Damned - F. Scott Fitzgerald
50. Against Nature - Joris-Karl Huysmans
51. The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X
52. The Outsider - Albert Camus
53. Animal Farm - George Orwell
54. The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx
55. Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
56. The Time Machine - H. G. Wells
57. The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick
58. The Invisible Man - H.G. Wells
59. The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
60. We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
61. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
62. Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga - Hunter S. Thompson
63. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
64. Another Country - James Baldwin
65. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
66. Junky: The Definitive Text of Junk - William S. Burroughs
67. The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins
68. Confessions of an English Opium Eater - Thomas De Quincey
69. Subterraneans - Jack Kerouac
70. Monsieur Monde Vanishes - Georges Simenon
71. Nineteen Eighty-four - George Orwell
72. The Monkey Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey
73. The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli
74. Bound for Glory - Arthur Miller
75. Death of a Salesman - Georges Simenon
76. Maigret and the Ghost - Georges Simenon
77. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
78. The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
79. A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan, Sir Doyle
80. The Thirty-Nine Steps - John Buchan
81. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
82. Therese Raquin - Ãmile Zola
83. Les Liaisons dangereuses - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
84. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
85. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
86. I, Claudius : From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Born 10 B.C., Murdered and Deified A.D. 54 - Robert Graves
87. Hangover Square - Patrick Hamilton
88. The Beggar's Opera - John Gay
89. The Twelve Caesars - Suetonius
90. Guys and Dolls - Hal Leonard Corporation
91. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
92. The Iliad of Homer - Homer
93. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
94. From Russia with Love - Ian Fleming
95. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
96. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
97. The Diary of a Nobody - George Grossmith
98. Pickwick Papers - Charles Dickens
99. Scoop - Evelyn Waugh
100. Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis

What Have You Done?

From http://meditativemeanderings.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-have-you-done.html who got it from other people.

01. Start your own blog — Yes
02. Sleep under the stars — Yes
03. Play in a band — Yes, sang with one, but that is my instrument
04. Visit Hawaii — No
05. Watch a meteor shower — Yes
06. Give more than you can afford to charity — Yes
07. Go to Disneyworld — No
08. Climb a mountain — Yes! Canadian Coastal range in the fog, no view, but life is the journey not the desination!
09. Hold a praying mantis — Yes
10. Sing a solo — Friends think I can sing in their weddings
11. Bungee jump — Nevah!
12. Visit Paris — No
13. Watch a lightning storm at sea — YES, from the coast and airplane
14. Teach yourself an art technique — Yes
15. Adopt a child — No
16. Eat sushi — YES, with Ginny and Lorraine
17. Walk to the top of the Statue of Liberty — No
18. Grow your own vegetables — Yes (mostly George, but we are one)
19. See the Mona Lisa in France — No
20. Sleep on an overnight train — More times than I care to remember. Europe!
21. Have a pillow fight — Yes
22. Hitch hike — Nevah!
23. Look at the rings of Saturn through a telescope — Yes
24. Build a snow fort — Nope
25. Hold a lamb — Nope (do stuffed ones count?)
26. Climb to the top of a lighthouse — Yes (Newport, Oregon)
27. Run a Marathon — Want to walk one
28. Ride in a gondola in Venice — No
29. See a total eclipse — Yes
30. Watch a sunrise or sunset — Yes
31. Hit a home run — YES!
32. Go on a cruise — I am going on May 18th for the first time!
33. See Niagara Falls in person — No
34. Visit the birthplace of your ancestors — Just Sweden. Penn some day
35. Visit an Amish community — No
36. Teach yourself a new language — Yes (Malay)
37. Have enough money to be truly satisfied — Yes
38. See the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person –No
39. Go rock climbing — Just on a wall
40. See Michelangelo’s David — Oh, some day I dream
41. Sing karaoke in public — Sang "Silent Night" and Carpenter's "Close to You" with Nancy Casady. It was piped through the whole shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur! LOL!
42. See Old Faithful geyser erupt in person — No
43. Buy a stranger a meal at a restaurant — Just Starbuck's
44. Visit Africa — No
45. Walk on a beach by moonlight — Yes, Malaysia was the best!
46. Ride in a helicopter — No
47. Have your portrait painted — No
48. Go deep sea fishing — No
49. See the Sistine Chapel in person — Someday
50. Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris — Not yet
51. Go scuba diving or snorkeling — Yes, snorkeling
52. Kiss in the rain — Yes
53. Play in the mud — Yes
54. Watch a movie at a drive-in theater — Yes
55. Be in a movie — No, but I was no Channel 7 New in LA once
56. Visit the Great Wall of China — No
57. Start a business — Yes
58. Take a martial arts class — No
59. Visit Russia — No
60. Serve meals at a soup kitchen — At a kids dinner outreach
61. Sell Girl Scout cookies — Ye
s62. Go whale watching — Only from the shore
63. Get or send flowers for no reason — Yes
64. Donate blood, platelets or plasma — Yes
65. Go sky diving — Nevah!
66. Visit a Nazi Concentration Camp — No
67. Adopt a pet from a rescue shelter — No
68. Pilot an airplane — Nevah!
69. Save a favorite childhood toy — Yes
70. Visit the Lincoln Memorial — No
71. Eat Caviar — I think but have blocked it
72. Make a quilt — YES!
73. Stand in Times Square — No
74. Tour the Everglades — No
75. Visit the Viet Nam Memorial — No
76. See the Changing of the Guard in London — No
77. Drive a race car — No
78. Ride on a speeding motorcycle — Yes
79. See the Grand Canyon in person — Yes
80. Publish a book — No
81. Visit the Vatican — No
82. Buy a brand new car — No
83. Walk in Jerusalem — No
84. Have your picture in the newspaper — Yes
85. Read the entire Bible — Yes
86. Visit the White House — No but love the C-SPAN documentary!
87. Kill and prepare an animal for eating — Yes
88. Hike the Appalachian Trail — No
89. Save someone’s life — No
90. Sit on a jury — No
91. Meet someone famous — Michael W. Smith, James Taylor, Elizabeth Eliot, Jo Shetler, Ronald Reagan walked by me
92. Join a book club –Oh, my guilty pleasure - three of them!
93. Own an iPod — Yes
94. Have a Facebook page — Yes
95. See the Alamo in person — No
96. Swim in the Great Salt Lake — No
97. Cross country snow ski — Yes
98. Hold a snake — Yes
99. See DaVinci’s Starry Night in person — No
100. Read an entire book in one day — Yes (many times)

Job 9:1-13

Job 9 (Amplified Bible)
Job 9:1-13

1THEN JOB answered and said,
2Yes, I know it is true. But how can mortal man be right before God?
3If one should want to contend with Him, he cannot answer one [of His questions] in a thousand.
4[God] is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has [ever] hardened himself against Him and prospered or even been safe?
5[God] Who removes the mountains, and they know it not when He overturns them in His anger;
6Who shakes the earth out of its place, and the pillars of it tremble;
7Who commands the sun, and it rises not; Who seals up the stars [from view];
8Who alone stretches out the heavens and treads upon the waves and high places of the sea;
9Who made [the constellations] the Bear, Orion, and the [loose cluster] Pleiades, and the [vast starry] spaces of the south;
10Who does great things past finding out, yes, marvelous things without number.
11Behold, He goes by me, and I see Him not; He passes on also, but I perceive Him not.
12Behold, He snatches away; who can hinder or turn Him back? Who will say to Him, What are You doing?
13God will not withdraw His anger; the [proud] helpers of Rahab [arrogant monster of the sea] bow under Him.

2008 Movies and Documentaries

DECEMBER
72. It's a Wonderful Life
71. A Muppet Christmas Carol
70. Ballykissangel: Season One
69. Can't Buy Me Love
68. Australia (Epic grandeur)
67. Two Weeks Notice
66. Sergeant York (GREAT!)
65. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
64. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
63. Elf
NOVEMBER
62. Kennedy (PBS TV Biopic)
61. A Man for All Seasons
60. Saved!
OCTOBER
59. High School Musical 3
58. Moliere
57. Foyle's War Final Season
56. Flash of Genius
SEPTEMBER
55. John Adams (Best of the Year!)
54. Stand by Me
53. Ever After (A Great Escape!)
52. Nanny McPhee (ADORABLE!)
AUGUST
51. Your Love Broke Through:Keith Green Story
50. Jaws II (Why?)
49. Nim's Island (on plane)
48. Leatherheads (on plane)
JULY
47. Hancock (Mindless Sci Fi Will Smith)
46. Mama Mia (Brosnan cannot sing)
45. The Cherry Orchard (Dench is amazing)
44. The Importance of Being Earnest (Redgrave ROCKS!)
43. A Doll's House (Bloom and Hopkins)
42. Mystic River (edited AMC version)
41. Picture Perfect (edited TV version)
40. Hamlet (Kevin Kline Version)
JUNE
39. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
38. WALL-E (Pixar Cute!)
37. Hamlet (2/3rd of Olivier version)
36. A Midsummer Night's Dream (Kline, Pfeiffer version)
34. Richard III (Olivier version)
33. Sense and Sensibility (Hilarious Emma Thompson Commentary)
32. Miss Austen Regrets (Masterpiece rewatch)
31. Sense and Sensibility (Masterpiece rewatch)
May
30. Cranford (Masterpiece)
29. Juno
28. Prince Caspian
27. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
26. Pride and Prejudice (Knightly version)
25. Anne Frank Biography
April
24. Northanger Abbey (Rewatch of Masterpiece)
23. My Boy Jack (Masterpiece)
22. Sense and Sensibility (Masterpiece)
21. The Way We Were
March
20. Exodus Revealed (Documentary)
19. Emma (Masterpiece)
18. Barak Obama Biography
17. The Odyssey (Hallmark - good)
16. The Ultimate Gift
15. The Adventures of Oicee Nash
February
14. Oedipus Mayor
13. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
12. Planet Earth:11 part BBC mini-series
11. The Teaching Company: Odyssey
10. Miss Austen Regrets (Masterpiece)
January
9. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything
8. Mansfield Park (Masterpiece)
7. The Kite Runner
6. Northanger Abbey (Masterpiece)
5. Atonement
4. Persuasion (Masterpiece)
3. Charlie Wilson's War
2. Luther
1. Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre)

2008 Books

DECEMBER
84. A Christmas Carol
83. The Jesse Tree
82. Jotham's Journey
81. Voltaire and Rousseau by Charles Sherover
80. Giovanni's Light
79. Ten Powerful Phrases for Positive People
78. The Star Across the Tracks
77. Nature by Emerson
76. The New Nation by Joy Hakim
75. The Importance of Being Earnest by Wilde
74. The Fourth Wise Man by Summers
73. The Story of the Other Wise Man by Van Dyke
72. Esther! Year One Done
NOVEMBER
71. What Ever Happened to the American Dream?
70. Nehemiah
69. Ezra
68. Self-Reliance by Emerson
67. 2 Kings
66. From Colonies to Country by Hakim
65. The Social Contract by Rousseau
64. Meditations by Descartes
63. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
62. A Man for All Seasons by Bolt
61. Utopia by Sir Thomas More
OCTOBER
60. True End of Civil Government by John Locke
59. The Road
58. Personal Narrative of Jonathan Edwards
57. Paradise Lost by John Milton
56. 1 Kings
55. Common Sense by Thomas Paine
54. Permission Evangelism
53. Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
52. Making Thirteen Colonies by Joy Hakim
SEPTEMBER
51. 2 Samuel
50. The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur
49. Frankenstein (Surprisingly good!)
48. The First Americans by Joy Hakim
47. Brothers Karamazov Cliff Notes
46. 1 Samuel
AUGUST
45. The Shack
44. Ruth
43. Judges
42. A School for Scandal by Sheridan
41. The Way of the World by Congreve
40. She Stoops to Conquer by Goldsmith
JULY
39. Joshua
38. Political Theory: The Classic Texts and Their Continuing Relevance by Joshua Kaplan (audio book)
37. The Republic by Plato
36. The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov
35. A Doll's House by Ibsen
34. The Landmark Thucydides: Peloponnesian War
JUNE
33. Deuteronomy
32. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
31. Hamlet
30. The Complete Sonnets of William Shakespeare
29. A Midsummer Night's Dream
28. The Prince by Machiavelli
27. Richard III by Shakespeare
26. Doctor Faustus (Sold his soul to the devil)
25. Everyman (Medieval Morality Play)
24. The Canterbury Tales
MAY
23. Numbers
22. The Odes of Horace (selections)
21. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
20. Sense and Sensibility
APRIL
19. Leviticus
18. Northanger Abbey
MARCH
17. Exodus
16. Landmark Herodotus: Histories
15. A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens
FEBRUARY
14. Birds by Aristophanes (Webb)
13. Medea by Euripides (Morwood)
12: Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (Fitzgerald & Fitts)
11. Eumenides (The Good-Minded Ones) by Aeschylus
10. Choephori (The Libation Bearers) by Aeschylus
9. Agamemnon by Aeschylus (Vellacott Trans)
7. Genesis
8. Greek Lyrics (Lattimore Translation)
6. The Holman Old Testament Commentary: Genesis
5. Crazy for God by Frank Schaeffer
4. The Odyssey (Lattimore Translation)
JANUARY
3. The Glass Castle
2. Peace Like a River
1. A Thousand Splendid Suns

Quiet Time Notes from Day of Prayer and January 1 & 2

Day of Prayer

You have given me "rest on all sides" (2 Chronicles 20:30). Yahoo! I love the "culture of peace" I am in!

You act on behalf of the one who waits for You (Isaiah 64:4).

Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired
They will walk and not become weary (Isaiah 40:31).

Pray for the "welfare of the city" of Corvallis (Jeremiah 29:7)

These are all books I will be in this year for the Bible Book Club. Interesting.

January 2

You must increase,
I must decrease (John 3:30).

"Satan dines on what we withhold from God." Francis Frangipane, The Three Battlefields

2008 Slideshow

I spent most of the day working on the BBC 2009 schedule and adding the last photos to my Carol365 blog and my Flickr 365 2008 photo set. So, I am adding it here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

Dancing with Jane Austen

Hmm? I wonder what happened to the video?

Bits and Pieces

I slept last night from about 10:00 - 12:45. Then, I was up until about 5 a.m. and slept until 10:00 a.m. As I fell asleep the snow was gently falling in the morning darkness. I woke up to a beautiful blanket and had to go and shoot pictures this day. The boys replenished their snowmen while I snapped.

I was behind. I still needed to get Jenna and Hayley's gifts to them, and I just hadn't gotten around to it. I think the loss of my mom has hit me harder this Christmas than last. Last Christmas was a blur since she died on December 7. So, I have struggled more, grieved more deeply, felt less confident. In fact, someone made a joking comment about me to a room full of people, and I was embarrassed, and it hit me hard today. I cried inside as the butt of his joke.

I called my aunt and uncle in Tucson. It was nice. It is a link to my mom. They are the only ones left of my parents' age. Passage of time. So strange. I could not think of a gift for them. I wanted to give to Linn-Benton County Food Share, and I told them I was thinking about doing that in lieu of their gift this year, and they were delighted. They thought this was much better. You know how many years I have wanted to suggest we do that instead of exchanging gifts every year? I have always been too afraid to approach the subject. Silly me.

After this, I got my Christmas cards ready for the family and pictures printed for the Christmas card to Rita in Malaysia. That has been burdening me since I left there in August and promised to send her pictures. George drove me to Starbuck's for Jenna and Hayley's gift, and we got these and the cards in the mail. I love closure.

Still crying in the car with him. I'm grieving. I did lose a brother too. Jean says I get a double pass, right? Hard but also a good year.

Then, we worked out and lifted weights, and I got a hit of FOXNews. I won't pay for it, but it is a nice plus to working out at Timberhill.

I did feel so much better after a workout. Endorphins were released.

Then, we went to Fred Meyer to stock up for our through Christmas food. I also have closure because I bought George's gift. George chatted with all sorts of people in the store, and I ran into Melissa; sweet SCC college gal.

George made me a plate of nachos, and I am going to wrap gifts tonight while the boys have Boys' Group if anyone shows up with this snow.

Book Club and Ginny and Lorraine were canceled for tomorrow because of snow. So, I have another day at home. I need to focus and trust that this grief will wash away someday.

Me and Michael W. Smith at Christmas Concert

The One Year Anniversary

Today is the one year anniversary of my mom's passage into heaven. I couldn't sleep last night and was up at the time she passed and prayed. Some people say I have been through a bunch this year, but it doesn't necessarily feel like it has been horrible. Many life changes and stresses, but He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is my rock, and it is to Him I cling.

On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand

Amen.

A Free Day

I decided to cancel school today. It is the day before Thanksgiving, and the kids are very "on track" school-wise. There are some things they could work on, but it is better to work on them closer to the due date so the material is fresh in their minds. Yes, they could have gotten one more lesson done in math and science, but we are not doing as many plays and field trips this year. So, I am sure they are going to finish their lessons in time. :) They were overjoyed, and I am glad to have a down day after a full fall.

I am amazed at the many answers to prayer these past few weeks. I have asked for confirmations lately, and He has answered and made some things so abundantly clear. I am so grateful.

I have taken a break from Rousseau the last few days. Somehow Rousseau and Thanksgiving just don't seem to go together.

There is so much more in my heart, but the things that I had on my heart when I started are best just left to a conversation with My king. Off I go.

Contemplating God Himself

"I should pause here for a brief while to contemplate God himself, to
consider his attributes and to contemplate and adore the beauty of this immense
light insofar as the eye of my darkened mind can tolerate it. Just as we believe
by faith that the greatest happiness of the next life consists simply in the
contemplation of this divine majesty, likewise we experience that we derive the
greatest joy of which we are capable in this life from the same contemplation,
even though it is much less perfect." --

Rene Descartes, Third Mediation on the Existence of God, p. 43

I read this tonight, and it touched me deeply.

Contemplating God himself tonight. If I am going to have insomina, I can't think of a better occupation!

Also thinking of all those friends who have reasoned away their God. That, too, still touches me deeply. I still grieve.

If I don't laugh, I'm gonna' cry!

Learning American History

As I type, we are listening to From Colonies to Country in the excellent, award-winning Joy Hakim series, The History of US. Our library has every book of this ten book series on audio cassette except this one, and it must be between publications because used copies are selling on Amazon for $153! My library is so good that they got if for me through Interlibrary Loan from a library in Hennepin Country, MN!

.

I absolutely LOVE this Hakim series. It is supposedly geared toward 9-12 year olds, but this 49 year old is getting so much out of it! It augments my reading John Adams by McCullough and watching the HBO mini-series by the same name.

'

Hakim weaves biographical sketches of characters into the story of American history to make it engaging for readers from "9 - 99" (as the book jacket says).

.

My kids ask for it. We sit on our couches in the living room and follow along in the books that I checked out from the library. Then, we discuss.

.

I love homeschooling. I love that synergy that comes from learning together.

A Stroll Down Memory Lane

My sister-in-law sent this to me this morning, and it made me smile. Memories of days gone by. I have been thinking so much of those days lately as Halloween marks the day I went down to be with my mom for the month of November as she made her slide toward heaven. These pictures are wrapped up with warm memories of my mom and dad (My dad LOVED Dean Martin!).

God bless and smile today.

Obama Radio Interview

Johns

I just looked at my Library Thing Book tag on the side bar of my blog and realized that the last three books I read were all written by Johns!

Hilarious.

Another trivial thing: the most common name for the signers of the Mayflower Compact were . . .

JOHNS! (11 - Paul just reminded me).

It does not take much to thrill me. Really pathetic, isn't it?

Romans 12 1-2

Romans 12 1-2, originally uploaded by carolfoasia.

Meditation into the early morning.

A Peace

I have really enjoyed this week. I am no longer involved in a one time event but in the ongoing lives of women and the family I love! So, there is this peace that has flooded over me right now as I sit and compose my thoughts for yet another Bible Book Club post. I/We have had a lovely week of investment as we heard all about Josh's trip on Sunday, met with Laura on Monday, Manal and Kim T. on Tuesday, and Rebekah today. Add to that a great week of homeschooling and time as a family on walks and workouts.

I like what I have settled into these days. It is well with my soul.

Book Babes Books 2008-2009

The alchemist / Paulo Coelho ; translated by Alan R. Clarke.

Author: Coelho, Paulo

Published: [San Francisco] : HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.

A Bess Streeter Aldrich treasury / Bess Streeter Aldrich ; with an introduction by Robert Streeter Aldrich.

Author: Aldrich, Bess Streeter, 1881-1954

Published: Mattituck, N.Y. : Aeonian, 1978, c1959.

The last lecture / Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow.

Author: Pausch, Randy

Published: New York : Hyperion, c2008.

Papa's wife.

Author: Bjorn, Thyra Ferré

Published: New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston [c1955]

River of doubt [CD/book] : [Theodore Roosevelt's darkest journey] / Candice Millard.

Author: Millard, Candice

Published: Santa Ana, CA : Books on Tape, p2005.

The river of doubt : Theodore Roosevelt's darkest journey / Candice Millard.

Author: Millard, CandicePublished: New York : Doubleday, 2005.

The road / Cormac McCarthy.

Author: McCarthy, Cormac, 1933-

Published: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

The road [cass/book] / Cormac McCarthy.

Author: McCarthy, Cormac, 1933-

Published: Prince Frederick, Md. : Recorded Books, p2006.

Selkirk's Island : the true and strange adventures of the real Robinson Crusoe / Diana Souhami.

Author: Souhami, Diana.

The story of the other wise man / Henry Van Dyke ; [introduction by Leo Buscaglia].

Author: Van Dyke, Henry, 1852-1933.

Published: New York : Ballantine Books, 1984, c1923.

Wesley the owl : the remarkable love story of an owl and his girl / Stacey O'Brien.

Author: O'Brien, Stacey

Published: New York : Free Press, c2008.

The year of fog : a novel / Michelle Richmond.

Author: Richmond, Michelle, 1970-

Published: New York : Delacorte Press, c2007.
The year of fog [downloadable audiobook] / by Michelle Richmond.

Author: Richmond, Michelle, 1970-

Published: [Ashland, Or.] : Blackstone Audio, Inc., 2007.

The year of fog [large print] / Michelle Richmond.

Author: Richmond, Michelle, 1970-

Published: Waterville, Me. : Thorndike Press, 2007.

Sometimes, you just have to have a good laugh . . .

With all the uncertainty in our economy and in the upcoming elections, it helps to have a good laugh . . .

A Breather

Seems like the fall is flying by. I had to squeeze in a day of prayer at the library (and other downtown locations), and I felt pretty frazzled going into it and not to rested coming out like I usually do. I am going to chalk that up to not getting a good night's sleep the day before and night sweats from the change of life that are usually no-existent when I am working out really hard, but I am only walking these days.

Once Jubilee is over, I will have a very reasonable schedule. We have made our adjustment to the "fall homeschool line-up" by dropping Biology lab. We are also through the two big Fun Runs: Fall Festival and Alzheimer's walk. My discipleship meetings are all planned on the schedule (that was a major undertaking) and Nourieh and I have our first Bible study on the 28th of October. Also, Paul's braces are on and teeth will all be finished being pulled tomorrow. Then, it will just be follow up appointments every five weeks.

Whew! I will be just right on Saturday. :) Not too busy and not too slow. I like that. Jubilee made me a bit busier than I like, and I am sorry to say that I will not be able to be a part of it next year. I really want to focus on other things, and it takes too much energy away from those things while I am trying to also get the fall off the ground and running.

The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson

I am typing as my oldest is reading this out loud to all three of us. I love this American Literature class. I love that many of the books that I have been wanting to read because of The Well-Educated Mind are part of Thelma's Library American Literature class. I love discussing these books with my kids. I love everything about school this year now that I dropped the biology class. Don't get me wrong: I loved that class. I think Sheri is a dedicated teacher and wonderful person, but it was too much for us to have to coordinate our BJU Biology with the Apologia biology. It was apparent within a week of starting the class. Sadly, I had already paid $60 for it, but we will get some supplies even though we had already done two dissections last year and didn't really need to do anymore.

Back to Mary.

Reading Goals for the Next Four Months

I'm trying to meld my TWEM goals and my kids' American Literature Class. It is looking great!

October
2 Samuel and 1 Kings
True End of Civil Government by John Locke
Narrative and Capitity of Mary Rowlandson (with kids for Am. Lit)
The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Dafur
Common Sense by Thomas Paine (with kids for Am. Lit.)
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Meditations by Descartes

November
2 Kings
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (with kids for Am. Lit.)
Democracy in America by Toqueville

December
Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther
A Christmas Carol by Dickens (as family)
The New England Mind by Miller

January
Job
Silas Marner by Eliot (for Book Dames)
Up from Slavery by Washington (for SCC Book Club)
Walden by Thoreau (with kids for Am. Lit.)
Life and Times of Frederick Douglas (with kids for Am. Lit.)

The Well-Educated Mind Homeschool Update: History

I am pretty excited about this school year of history. So, I am going to write about what I am doing. I'll do the other subjects on the other days. Someday. LOL!

We are studying

US HISTORY!!!!!!!!!

We are starting off by using this:

A Biography of America

This is a 26 lecture film series put out by the Annenberg Media. Each lecture lasts 30 minutes, and it is FREE Video on Demand. It gives a good visual for what we are studying.

Here is the web address for this:

http://www.learner.org/biographyofamerica/index.html

We are also listening to Joy Hakim's delightful series A History of US. It is geared toward a younger audience, but we really like the interesting stories, and she isn't TOO politically correct for our sensibilities. She seems pretty fair and balanced compared to some other texts. We are just finishing up The Making of Thirteen Colonies.

We are supplementing this with two high school texts that are used in AP US History classes:

I like A People and a Nation too.

This is all being reinforced by our American Literature course that we are taking through:

http://www.thelmaslibrary.com/

She has a 400+ page syllabus where the kids are reading orginal documents like the "Arabella Covenant" and the "Mayflower Compact." It is great reinforcement.

This is all done with the goal of preparing for this:

The College-Level Examination Program

There is a great 150 page general overview of American History that we are using to review what we have learned in our studies of the above texts and American Literature.

Then, there are three computer-generated test to prepare the kids for taking the test at Linn-Benton Community College some time this year.

As we go, we are using the AP United States History Flash Cards.

We also use this website to help in our being ready to take the CLEP:

http://clepprep.tripod.com/ushistoryiclepexam/id1.html

If we get ambitious, I might also have the kids take the CLEP American Literature exam, but I haven't checked into that yet.

We are continuing with our Timeline Figures from Home School In the Woods too. GREAT thing. In addition, I am using the timelines in The History of US and having the kids paste the wording in the timeline book.

True Forgiveness

Good thought,
Hurt you not.
Gossip never,
Friends forever.

Another Threshold

. . . the starting point for a new state or experience; "on the threshold of manhood"

When I wrote this definition over a month ago about our trip to Southeast Asia, I never thought it would be applicable for our trip home, but it is!

I didn't think about until today, but we are on the starting point of a new state or experience with this job situation. It is not a struggle, but there is much more energy being put into the realm of possibilities that abound for us.

I hit a wall on Monday, and I knew I was edging toward it when I went to the first co-op meeting of the year with a NEW co-op. I really wished that I had stayed home from the meeting. I needed some quiet time to reflect, and I haven't had much of that lately. When we came home from Southeast Asia, we had to do a TON of follow up that took hours and hours (still have one more piece to accomplish). We also needed to get things going with school and outside activities. I was still trying to get into a groove and also into a good sleep pattern.

I also made the MISTAKE of staying up late to watch the closing days of the Olympics. Then, I was watching both the Democratic and Republican Conventions. So, by this week, I was pretty fried.

Should have stayed home. I cried through most of the meeting, and I felt like a fool. I know that they may think it is because George lost his job. People just assume things. They assume we are going to move. They assume we are probably worried and anxious and stressed about it, but we are not. We planned for a rainy day. We never thought this HP gig was forever. In fact, this is the longest George has ever had a job at any one place! We weren't HP lifers. We weren't cozy in the job. We aren't even cozy in Corvallis, but we need to stay here because of the dental issues with our kids. So, we aren't planning on moving.

I will say that we ARE processing the options, and this is taking time and emotional energy. The job has been on "auto-pilot" for years. Now that we are landing the "HP plane" and thinking about our future flight plan, there is MUCH more "pilot to copilot" communication. We are more on our toes, and THAT is exhausting me.

More recently, I stayed up late and poured my heart out and then listened to God. It was so good. I guess He was speaking to me about being open to self-employment. When I told George about this the next morning, he said he had been praying about this for a week and was "easing me" in to the idea. Interesting.

I have always thought we are not self-employment type of people, but George has had a self-employment component since he left HP. So, there is a possibility that he could draw from all his contacts and do contracts with all of them.


We are on the threshold. It is exciting . . . and exhausting.

A Bend in the Road

I told George today that I am excited about our future with his being let go at HP.

I love bends in the road!

Bill Wardrop's Celebration of Life

Bill_VB_mag_cover, originally uploaded by carolfoasia.

Here is the magazine cover God allowed me to find for his memorial on August 23rd.

April 18, 1945 - July 7, 2008

On the Threshold of a Dream

Thresh-hold: the starting point for a new state or experience

We are going to Southeast Asia after seven long years of being away! I am excited. I can't contain it.

I gotta' go.

Ministered to Me Tonight

This really spoke to me after I heard an aching heart tonight.

Sunday Reflections

It has been almost two weeks since I blogged here. I started a new blog to document my fifty celebrations to fifty! (www.fiftycelebrations.blogspot.com).

Oh my, I hear the car with George and Paul. I have to go to church now. Really, I GET to go! I love going to church now. :)

Oregon Shakespeare Festival And Porch Reflections

Oregon Shakespeare Festival, originally uploaded by carolfoasia.

I spent the weekend at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It was a celebration for Laura's (second row on the left) 40th birthday which will be in December. She invited ten friends from different eras of her life. I am the most recent "era" in that, while I have known her (and admired her from afar) for about three or four years, we just started really getting to know each other since last July when we started meeting for accountability. Laura is a deep and kind woman. So, of course, she has attracted deeply spiritual friends over the years. The weekend was overwhelming for me in that I would have loved to connect more deeply with each person, but there was no prior history other than with Laura and Cathi (standing at the top), and I probably won't see any of the rest of them again.

I was a bit lonely and depressed on Saturday night until I realized I could revel in the solitude of my own room even as I listened to the hushed murmurs of midnight conversations in all the rooms around the house. I realized that I have this healthy desire to connect deeply that always seems to be frustrated in large groups of women stuck in the same place for a limited amount of time (women's retreats, Trapdoor/Lamppost getaways, etc). That desire can easily become a demand if I am not careful.

I woke up very early Sunday morning really THANKFUL that I didn't have a roommate that I would disturb! I stole away to the deserted porch and had a long and wonderful time with God where I started out with this verse from Face to Face by Kenneth Boa:

"Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed,
Save me, and I will be saved,
For You are the One I praise" (Jeremiah 17:14).

So funny that this has been my healing verse since 2006, yet I never realized it is in the context of a teaching about a deceitful heart - something that God has been speaking to me about all summer!

_________________
"Cursed is the [woman] who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh her strength,
And whose heart turns away from the LORD" (17:5).

I wrote:

Oh Lord - my deceitful heart has turned away from you this
morning. Yesterday, I was making FLESH my strength. Deceitful heart - when will
you learn!?

What is my end if I am like that?

"For [s]he will be like a bush in the desert
And will not see when prosperity comes,
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness
A land of salt without inhabitant"(17:6).

Lord, a heart set on people will always be a heart dry and
longing for water because people were never meant to be my
lifespring even though my deceitful heart longs for it to be
so!

"Blessed is the [woman] who trusts in the LORD
And whose trust is the LORD" (17:7).

Lord, help me to trust in You. Become my trust. Wretched woman.
When will I learn to not make flesh my strength?

What is the biproduct of this blessed life?

"For she will be like a tree (then I drew a picture with my meditations)planted by the water,
that extends its roots by a stream.
And will not fear when the heat comes.
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought.
Nor cease to yield fruit"(17:8).

"The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desparately sick;
Who can understand it?" (17:9)

Lord, I am only beginning to really understand my deceitful heart.

"Lord, you search my heart
You test my mind" (17:10).

Lord, don't give to me according to my ways,
According to the results of my deeds
but remember mercy and Jesus,
and Holy Spirit, transform me.

LORD, our sanctuary is a glorious throne.
LORD, my hope.
LORD, help me not to forsake you, the fountain of living water.

Hope. Now the verse I started with:

"Heal me, O LORD, And I will be healed;
Save me and I will be saved
For, You are my praise."

Lord, you have commanded Your lovingkindness
this morning. THANK YOU. You ALONE do wonderful things. Fill today with your
glory, LORD.

It ended up being a very glorious end to a wonderful weekend. I ended up loving it. My perspective was right once again. Praise God for course corrections in midstream.

I am a little down today, but again, I am having to learn the longing I have to connect is not always met in some friendships, and that was quite clear to me as I went out with two friends last night. So, today I am a bit empty again, but it has been good to be rereminded of what God taught me one Sunday morning on a porch in Ashland. Another course correction for my deceitful heart.

There is more to say about the plays, but I will stop for now.

Double Pass

234 - Brother Bill, originally uploaded by carolfoasia.

This is the last picture of my brother Bill. He died last Monday at the age of 63. What a lovely time of sitting on the lawn outside of Balboa Park near San Diego last August. We talked of him moving to Oregon. I wanted to help him. Here is my post from last August 22.

Today, it all caught up with me, and I need to breath and grieve. I went for a walk/hike with Rosemary and enjoyed the view from up above toward Chip Ross hill. I need a higher view right now in everything.

I made a mistake in a rendezvous point for lunch with friends today. It meant Jean driving all the way to Corvallis only to to drive all the way back to Salem when she couldn't find LeAnne and me. I realized I had topped out in trying to prepare to go overseas, doing a writing class with my kids, meeting with friends, discipling women, having Bible study. Jean (who had two hours of driving) was so gracious when I told her I was an idiot. She said . . .

"Carol, you get a pass on this one. You have so much going on right now. In fact, you get a double pass. I enjoyed my drive down and trip to Jamocha Jo's (friend Nancy's coffee shop) and Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It was a great drive back up. Double pass, Carol."

So, I am NOT going berry picking tomorrow. I am slowing down in the writing class. I canceled something someone wanted me to do right after I get back from Southeast Asia. I canceled a time meeting with someone close to the time that I was leaving. I am going to give myself a double pass and grieve.

Carol out

Happy 4th of July

I am so happy this 4th.

The Cowdens cancelled their annual party, and the Stews had to back out of a get-together tonight because Jake has a game.

So, we didn't know what we would do. Felt sort of lonely, but NOT for long.

I took a walk and told George that I needed a hammock! So, we went to five different stores and found one at RiteAid. We set it up. I read Plato. George watched Wimbledon and baked an apple pie. I took a nap. We went to Applebees. We took a bike ride to the river and watched the band. We came back, invited Eva for a apple pie and fireworks. We also asked Marg who said, "Do you like cherries?"

Do I like cherries!?

We picked a whole bag! Now, we are starting the fireworks in our driveway and will bring pie to Eva and Marg.

Life is grand. I love my life more than anyone will ever know.

Peaceful Middle of the Night Reflections

I just finished Thucydides, and I am too excited to sleep. This was a huge hurdle, but "little by little gets the job done." What a bear! I liked Herodotus much better because he had more observations about the peoples throughout Persia and their social customs; some things were even hilariously funny! But Herodutus was just called Histories while Thucydides was called The History of the Peloponnesian War. So, there was very little commentary and 21 years worth of battles! UGH! Susan Wise-Bauer suggested we just skim the battle scenes, and I took her up on her advice.

I did like his observations of human nature; that we are basically bent toward our own gain, that human nature is always rebelling against the law, that the Athenians didn't respond to initiations of peace because they were always grasping for MORE. That was interesting.

It got me thinking about peace. As I was reading that the Athenians refused Sparta's offer of peace and alliance, and instead "grasped for something more," I had an epiphany. I realized that I love peace! It made me grateful for a culture of peace at my church, in my immediate and extended family, in all relationships. It is cultivated everywhere I go, and I LOVE the peace that I now enjoy in every area of my life. Why wouldn't Athens want that? Well, Thucydides answered that by explaining the essence of human nature: we are bent toward always "grasping for more."

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James 4:1 says:

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"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Aren't they caused by the selfish desires that fight to control you?" GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)

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Selfish desires always get in the way of true peace.

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It grieves me. Once, I was in a culture that didn't allow for that. The culture said, "We will make you the bad guy." That is how that culture has always dealt with conflict. I saw employee after employee be forced to resign, and it was always the employees problem, never the cultures. After about the sixth "forced resignation," you start to wonder if it isn't always the employees fault.

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There were no fair negotations of a peace treaty where both parties came to the table and discussed terms of peace because the culture doesn't really want to have peace: they want to be right. They hold out until, years later, the other party says they are sorry. Then, they graciously "forgive" and never admit their part in the conflict. In the middle of the apology is character assasination, gossip, slander. (All attack responses even though they aren't directly to the person's face). I saw it over and over again throughout the 28 years of being in that culture until one day I woke up and smelled the coffee (and I don't even like coffee). Before that, I heard the rumors and chose to keep my head in the sand because I didn't want to gossip. Others tried to convince me in hushed whispers of the "just cause" for the "war" with that person who had now become the "enemy." Of course, the former employees weren't called the "enemy" because we are all Christians, right?

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It is also interesting to note the same person was the person trying to convince me of the "just cause." In fact, they were behind almost every forced resignation when they "shared their concerns" with those who "needed to know." This person never had an official role either, but they had the leaders' ears. My experience with that person was that they look at situations through their own lens, and it is often a very distorted picture of what really has happened, but the culture doesn't allow for the other person to come and tell their story. That distortion become reality, and the employees goose is cooked.

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It still grieves me to know how many wonderful people have been hurt by that culture. They are wonderful because they go on to other places and do great and wonderful things! It grieves me that my former culture is so arrogant that they can't take a long, hard, objective look at their culture and change it. People who have tried become labeled "the problem." Most people in the culture don't stand up and say "That is wrong!" for fear of judgment and character assasination being directed at them because of what has happened in the past.

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Some of the Athenian people did not stand up to the murderous oligarchy when they started murdering those who oppossed them:

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"The People remained motionless, being so thoroughly cowed that men thought themselves lucky to escape violence, even when they held their tongues" (p. 518)

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No, there is no physical murder in the culture; but there ARE attack responses in their gossip and slander. Yet, the people in the culture all breath a sigh of relief and say, "I'm glad it is not me." It made me think of a friend who sat on my couch and told me she was forbidden from talking to another friend who had expertise in a certain ministry because that friend had "left." That person regrets not speaking up and defending. She was afraid. What right do the leaders of that culture have to stand in the way of a friendship and helping make a ministry better by picking the former members brain? It seems like a no brainer to me, but that is where the whole jelousy and selfish ambition thing comes in.

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I had the same thing happen to me when I was there. I had a friend whom I knew to be an expert in team-building exercises who used to be an employee there. I was going to do some of those with a group I was leading, and I want her to come and run the games. That was very much FROWNED upon. Fraternizing with the enemy, you know?

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It really makes me sad. It grieves my heart. So sad to think that people would control other people in such a way, but I was controlled by it at one time too.

But I am free now! Just people "always grasping for more" for a multitude of unhealthy reasons. It honestly doesn't make me mad, but it makes me very sad. I grieve because the war still rages in muffled tones, and I feel guilty that I am free, and they are not.

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I am grateful for the culture of peace in which I reside now that has mechanisms to negotiate "terms of peace" in case of hostilities (that are normal and natural when you have selfish people trying to work together). There is no fear of standing up when people need to be accountable for their actions there either. There is no fear to stand up and disagree. Everyone has a story - no one is the "enemy" there. We all know we have that basic human natural bent of selfishness that causes fights and quarrels, but there is a mechanism of grace in place. I love it. The only thing that is not allowed is to not forgive. I love that too.

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It make me glad that my 28 year (got you beat by 7 years, Athens and Sparta!) war is over. AWWWWWW

Summer Reading Goals Update

MOM'S WELL- EDUCATED MIND SUMMER READING LIST:

H=History, D=Drama, P=Poetry, A=Autobiography

H - Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (Done 7/2 - I will shout this from the rooftops!)
H - Plato's Republic (Done 7/22)
H - Plutarch's Lives (2 Volumes: Roman and Greek )
H - City of God by Augustine
H - Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede
D - Everyman (Done 6/19 - contrast with Dr. Faustus - loved this play!)
H - Prince by Machiavelli (Done 6/24 - Richard III blew it)
H - Utopia by Sir Thomas More
P - Sonnets of Shakespeare (Done 6/26)
A - Essays of Montaigne
A - Life of Teresa of Avila
D - Doctor Faustus by Marlowe (Done 6/21 - Heavy and great for discussion!)
D - Richard III by Shakespeare (Done 6/21 - Shakespeare ROCKS!)
D - Midsummer Nights Dream by Shakespeare (Done 6/24)
D- Hamlet by Shakespeare (Done 6/28)

Beyond Goals:

D - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Done June 29)
D - Tartuffe by Moliere (Done July 2)
D - A Doll's House (Done July 14)
D - The Cherry Orchard (Done July 14)

Amazing Grace: Stories of Newton, Wilberforce, and Equiano (audio)