Friday, January 27, 2012
The Message I Needed Today
Va-Era
For the week of January 28, 2006 / 28 Tevet 5766
Torah: Shemot / Exodus 6:2 - 9:35
Haftarah: Ezekiel 28:25 - 29:21
Hold On Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage. (Shemot / Exodus 6:9) Moses didn't have an easy job. God called him to stand before a powerful leader of a powerful nation to demand that they give up their slave labor force. It was not surprising that Pharaoh, King of Egypt, didn't listen to him. That was to be expected, but the very people whom he was to lead didn't listen to him either. When Moses first presented God's plan to the leaders of his people, they received him enthusiastically. But it wasn't too long after Moses' first confrontation with Pharaoh that their plight turned from bad to worse. After so many years of cruel bondage, Moses, who was actually a fugitive, burst on the scene, saying God had sent him to deliver them. One would assume that if the all powerful God of the universe sends someone to save them that it would just happen. But instead Pharaoh decreed that their labor be made more intense. I don't think we can blame them for their discouragement. There is no indication that God was critical of their reaction. It would be some time before God would strive with the people over their grumbling and unbelief, but at this point, he took their reaction in stride. What a challenge this must have been for Moses, however. He knew he had encountered God. Not only had God told him he would deliver the people, he also told him that Pharaoh would not listen. It must have been encouraging to him to see his own people's initial positive response, but then he had to stand alone except for the companionship of his brother Aaron. It is one thing to read this as a story, but if we stopped to think about it, I wonder how many of us would be willing to be involved in such an undertaking: confronting a political tyrant on one hand, and leading a downtrodden people who had lost all hope on the other. Yet Moses did it. As God continued to tell him what to say, Moses continued to do it. Some may think that if they would have such an encounter with God, they would be just like Moses, but I don't think so. We might be surprised at how we can have deeply rooted convictions, yet still give up under pressure. The Bible has many examples of people who dramatically encountered God, yet were not up to the task, or did well for a while, but failed in the end. It's not the encounter that makes the difference. There is something much deeper that must happen inside a person to enable them to stick to their calling against all obstacles. Somehow Moses was able to keep perspective in spite of the difficulties before him. Somehow he knew that what God was saying was right in spite of the circumstances he faced. The people of Israel had every indication that their situation was not going to get better. Moses had performed some signs for them, which seemed to impress them, but their increased suffering proved to have greater influence upon their outlook than anything Moses said or did. But Moses' response was different. Moses continued to believe God. This is the challenge that is before each one of us today. Whatever our life situation, will we base our outlook on life on our circumstances, good or bad, or will we base it on what God is saying to us? And God is speaking to us - whether we have had a dramatic encounter like that of Moses or we read his clear directives in the Scriptures. Either way, as we seek to live out what God says, we will be confronted by situations that will try to intimidate us by giving us the impression that we will not be able to succeed in fulfilling God's will in our lives. It is only when we refuse to be dragged down by these threats of intimidation that we will be able to fulfill God's call. Again, that call may not include the same level of responsibility that Moses was given, or be as critical. Still, whatever our God-given responsibilities are, as we face similar challenges, we must continue to hold on to whatever it is God has said to us. http://www.torahbytes.org/66-14.htm
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Having a Horrible Time
(or, I need your help)
I'm trying to work on a project... and it's just NOT coming together for me. I don't do this often, but... I need help. Ideas, brainstorming... people who can actually visualize and count at the same time... that kind of thing. Because I'm feeling really, really blonde, and I know this can't be that complicated.
Here's the thing: For our schooling, we do a Book of Centuries. It's a comb-bound book in which we put people, places, and events that happened in history. It's in order, from Creation to the present. I'm kinda picky about what goes into it, but when we study history, Bible, music, etc... we add composers, artists, Bible characters, famous places (Westminister Abbey built, Pyramids, Hanging Gardens), famous people (Richard the LionHeart, Leif Erikson, George Washington) and more.
I am wanting to start in on the Story of Yeshua this year with the kids. They know who He is, how He factors into the feasts, what He did on the cross, that He's coming back... but they don't know the events of His life. So I've got a 'Harmony of the Gospels' .pdf (LINK) to help us do it in order as we read, using all four gospels at the same time. It should be fun.
BUT...!! Yeshua's life was only 33 years long. In the grand scheme of things, extremely brief. And I don't wanna just stick a cross in the Book of Centuries and call it good. It's more important than that. And it's also the division point between AD and BC (or BCE and BC, if you're... nevermind). So having something unique between the two would be good... kind of a separator.
In comes my idea. I saw this 'timeline of Christ' at a Catholic site a long time ago (LINK). It's a wall chart that you print off and cut out and tape up... then you affix pictures of His life as you read them. Only I want to do this for the Book of Centuries - a fold-out timeline, if you will. Using my own (less-twaddly) pictures... cuz I got some BEAUTIFUL ones, that are really amazing.
NoTe: Yes, I have wrestled with the issue of 'No Graven Images' mightily where this is concerned. But I have come to a conclusion: That that command had to be in regards to Yehovah, not Yeshua, as Yehovah is boundless/formless, while Yeshua had a specific appearance unique to Him. Also, because of His physicality during His ministry, the potrayal of such His interactions as a man requires an image. And throw in the fact that these are children who understand better with a visual, it's a no-brainer - we're doing the picture thing. With the STRONG emphasis on the fact that these are just renderings of Yeshua, how people imagine He looked, as we don't know.
Regardless, we're talking about using cardstock instead of copy paper. And it would be comb-bound (at least one page of it) to secure it in the Book of Centuries. But how to do it?! I can fit eight pictures per page - two columns and four rows. But it would require nine pages to do what I want to do... I have access to the arrows (any size I want!) because they're standard Word shapes offered on the toolbar.
The problem is keeping things in order. Going accordion-style is a waste of paper. I thought flaps to fold out on either side and top and bottom, but that gets... confusing to me. That's where my brain's *TILT* light goes on, and I start to go a little crazy.
Any ideas on how to do this?
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Story of the World - Chapter Eighteen
----------- Crete-ings from the Minoans! ----------
(((Giggles)))
Isn't that punny?
Yes. Well. Anyhow... ahem. Sometimes? He just works these things out. Because this week's art study in our schoolroom is "Landscape with the Fall if Icharus". By Bruegel... you can see it HERE. Who (ironically) we got to see a work of at the Art Museum this weekend, and I also stopped and got a book called 'Gods & Men' so we could read about Icharus... because up until now, I have avoided mythology. But it's about time to start thinking of it, as we're wrapping up a unit study in our nature notebooks, and astronomy is coming up. And then, on top of all THAT, we've hit the Myth countries in SotW... just in time!
So we visited Crete and learn about the world's first navy (which RunOfTheMill built out of milk carton bottoms(?) HERE), about the volcano on a nearby isle that erupted and ashed over Crete, corrupting the air and land to the point where the civilization ended with the leaving of all the peoples (which Satori Smiles simulated with a plaster of paris erupting volcano HERE). But the story everyone loved the best about Crete was Theseus and the Minotaur... the Minotaur on Crete was fed seven boys and seven girls from Athens every year - down in a labyrinth under the Castle at Crete. Theseus (son of Athen's king) journeys to Crete, and with the help of Princess Ariadne, uses a ball of yarn to find his way thru the  labyrinth (and out again) and slays the monster! BOTH of my SotW sites also built labyrinths ( HERE and HERE). Satori used LEGOs, but they're tiny... y'know? So we got out the Du-PLOs, and I set Daddy and the kids to work building a labyrinth. ((I wanted our BeanieBaby Bison in the center, but he's apparently gone walkabout... so we settled for a lion.)) It... was an unmitigated disaster. Nobody knew what they were doing, and nothing led anywhere... it was a mess. I guess too many cooks in the kitchen, r'something? So I put the kids to bed and set about building a labyrinth FOR them. I lined up four Little People, and got it all ready. Brian thought I'd gone mental, sitting on the floor surrounded by blocks, humming a jaunty little song. But there weren't any little hands to mess it up, so it was the perfect time for it! Here's the finished project - can YOU find your way through it?  Then this morning, I got the kids out of bed one by one (oldest to youngest, to preserve the maze as best as I could). Each child got a Little People, and had to find their way through the maze. It was a good maze, too... every one of the boys went the wrong way, and had to back-track. Ethan made three wrong turns, and Isaac two... Aaron was completely flummoxed! But Lydia got it with just a little concentration. Which means it was a GOOD maze! And they loved the surprise of having something special to wake up to and an 'adventure' to take on their own MORE than they liked trying to build the sucker the night before!! Tonight Brian wants to watch 'Labyrinth' with them,
so I'll probably cave and go along with it. ((grins))
Other SotW Lesson Eighteen Sites:
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
I'm Grateful For:
- NOT going to Sing Thing last night. It was cold, it was wind-whippingly nasty out, it was raining, it was icy, it was... Chinese New Year and frankly I just wanted to be with my family. And Lydia didn't want to go out, either. So I claimed my barely scratchy throat as excuse to stay home. And I made stir-fry and pulled out the fortune cookies and we had a crazy peanut beef meal and played Clue. WAY better than going to Sing Thing!
- Brian's stuff. He needs stuff - programs, software, etc - to run his machine out in the barn. And since it's the same stuff as he does at his regular job, whenever they upgrade, they declare the old stuff 'obsolete' and 'get rid of it'... to Brian. So he's been getting it for FREE from his work, because they don't want/don't use it anymore. Yes, it's one-step-behind technology, but it's perfectly good for doing what he does out in the barn. We're talking HUNDREDS of dollars in materials and programs. It's wonderful for him. He's even got the old computer they used to work from, and he's been trying to configure everything with his home machines this week... so it's been really interesting to watch. And did I mention I'm really glad that he's able to get the stuff free? I don't know that we could buy it all for him out of pocket.
- Tax Time coming up. I know some people hate it, but it means endless possibilities to us. We're already dreaming and planning about what we might do.
- I'm also kinda grateful that we ((may)) be here long enough to sell the camper. Spring is the best time for that!
- Baking days with children. We're planning one this afternoon - I had browsed a recipe book and found 'monster cookies' and Brian has wanted us to make them for a while, so today's the day!
- Making it thru a visit from my mother this morning.
- Children dressed as Robin hood, with rooster feathers in their stocking caps.
- Deleting lots of MBs of stuff from my PC, then compacting/defragging.
- Grateful for Grateful blogs that are easy and make up for the fact that I have NO desire to post at all today. Should I have confessed that...? Should I also confess that the first two long ones were written BEFORE my mother's visit, and the rest are now that she's gone... hence confirming the actual reason I have NO desire to post at all...?
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Patchwork Blog
Boom, Boom, Boom! Hey. It's morning. I... slept for crap last night, due to thunderstorms that were just crazy loud. Ended up with a kid in my bed, twice. Really unkewl. And it's crazy, cuz yesterday it was face-freezing cold when we went to town... if it'd hit us THEN, we would've gotten gorgeous snow. Instead, it warmed up to almost 40 by nightfall and poured. Go figure.
Ice Sculptures! I didn't mention that last week we went to the Rockford Ice Sculpting Festival. See, we're still keeping up our tradition of going on adventures every weekend, and just because it's winter doesn't mean anything. So we'd never been, before, and went up to check it out. It was really very well done. There were around 30 scuptures, ranging in size from 8 foot tall (a dragon) to two foot tall (a snowman with a hole where his face should be, so little kids could put their faces in it and have their picture taken). There was an umpire with a hole in his mask for kids to throw softballs thru, a goalie with a hole between his feet that kids could take a stick and puck and whack one thru, a mini-golf course of ice sculptures, and more. We got to watch the ice fly as a guy near the pavilion worked on a 7-foot polar bear. And it was a gorgeous (albiet bitingly cold) day... good thing we all have snowpants!! And it was all free... all except the trip to our favorite Mexican restaurant (which has free children's meals on Sundays, so we still walked away having spent only $30 for a full day of fun/food for a family of seven!).
Art Museum! Yesterday was one of four days this year in which the four major museums in Grand Rapids are open (free!) to the public from noon until 5pm. They're the Grand Rapids Public Museum, the Grand Rapids Children Museum, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, and the Grand Rapids Art Museum. We went to the Art Museum, and made sure to get there *AT* noon, since Sunday is church-day for the chrischuns, and we figured they'd have to go home and change, stop for lunch, and then mosey their holy little hineys to the museums. It worked great... the place was barren when we got there, we stayed and looked at EVERYTHING for 2 hours, and when we were leaving at 2pm, it was PACKED. There was a lady who said she'd stood outside the Children's Museum for 40 minutes before giving up and coming over. So we chose well! FWIW, the GR Art Museum was voted by Newsweek to be one of the six best new buildings of 2007. I have news - it's butt-ugly, completely lacking in energy efficiency, and the waste of wall space is abominable. But it had tons of Picasso and a Bruegel (who we're studying in our artist feature this week)... and there was even a Frank Lloyd Wright. And we can say we went... so that's good. And it was FREE... we figure it would've cost us $40, otherwise. So that's great!
Mama's Comments. We were walking down this aisle of art paintings by people known only by first name and age (local, maybe?) HomiGawsh, they were... ridiculous. And all these people were standing there, staring at them, like that would help or something. The kids were like, "What the heck is up with these, they don't look anything like what they're called!" I said, "Well, on the bright side, when we get to where we're working with oils, your stuff will definitely look better than this." Brian said a guy standing near me had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Apparently I'm not the only one of that mind...? I'm not saying there wasn't amazing art there... just that there was some exceptionally NOT amazing art there, as well.
Little Red... We went Saturday to the symphony and ballet. I know, I know, but they seem to do EVERYTHING all at the same time, and I can't help that. Once a year, the Grand Rapids Symphony and Grand Rapids Ballet have a children's production. It's $5 per person... and you just can't beat that. There's NO way I can take our family to the ballet OR symphony, otherwise! So we went. I got good pictures, too! So tomorrow we're doing the orchestra lapbook, because today...
Gung Hay Fat Choy! Today is the Chinese New Year!! We did lapbooks for it last year, so we took them out after breakfast and 'set the clock' to Year of the Dragon, and reviewed the information about the Chinese New Year. ((You can find the Lapbook on my Homeschool archive, or just link HERE.)) Anyhow, after the Art Museum yesterday, we ended up having lunch at the Jade Garden, a very nice, extremely quiet (read: we were the only ones there!) Chinese restaurant. We had almond chicken, Sweet and sour chicken, Cashew Chicken, egg drop soup, crab ragoons, and oolong tea. And don't forget the fortune cookies! So we got our Chinese in a little early... which is good, since tonight is Sing Thing and I can't make stir fry. (((Sigh!)))
Year of the Dragon. I read at a Jewish blog that this year is significant, because it's the last year before the Gog-Magog war, and it's the year of the Dragon - Satan being the Dragon, of course. I can't read how they calculate this stuff, as I don't read/speak Hebrew well enough, but apparently the Year of the Dragon is the 'last hurrah' before Messiah comes on the scene. And apparently there was an amazing Rabbi who prophecied three times that Messiah's return would be 5772... in other words, before October of this year. So the fact that this is also the year of the Dragon ties in for them. I don't know. I just read and report. Cuz... I believe He's coming by October, too.
Another Big 'Un. This morning, an M-9 class CME headed out from the sun in our direction. M-9 is the last available M-class number before we get into the X-class beasties. In other words, this is a BIG ol' CME. The geomagnetic storm should reach us Tuesday/Wednesday night, and I'm expecting a quake or two on Thursday of the rather enormous variety. Should be fun!
Video Vamp. That'd be me. I forgot that Brian had taped 30 minutes or so of the X-mess show Lydia and I were in, and I had to make the nine clips into a DVD. I have a program to do that, but I've never tried to make a whole MOVIE before!! So last night I sat down and worked on transitions, credits, titles, integrating clips... it was crazy, but it burned beautifully, and we have a video! WooooT! Now I just have to start working on picture editing... I haven't done any since Sukkot, and that was a LONG time ago!
Shakespeare Sunday! So far, we'd done 'Midsummer', 'Much Ado', and 'Twelfth'... so this week we did 'As you Like It'. It's always fun doing Shakespeare with the kids. There are some GREAT movies out there, and I found a 'comic' book with 4-page spreads of each play that we go over before watching them. The kids think they're hilarious. And even funnier? Is listening to the kids afterwards. "Thou art a knave!" declares Ethan. "A knave? A knave? Well...! Thou art a WOOGY-WART!" If anyone wants to clue me in on what a 'woogy-wart' might be, I'm open to suggestions...
So Yeah! We've been ESPECIALLY, really busy lately! I... need to go sit down and just chill for a little, methinks. I got a book at the library the other day, called 'Enchanted Ivy'. Have you noticed how dark the teen section is, anymore? It's all sorcery, vampires, undead, evil, and dark magic. Kinda creepy, to think what the next generation is growing up on. And for the record? Whoever wrote 'Enchanted Ivy' has a think for Bella/Edward... because I swear, they're the SAME characters, just at Princeton with talking gargoyles, this time. Crazy shit, I'm tellin' ya...
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