Bullet Blog

• Hi.
• I’m cranky.
• Partly because of the prevailing sickness…
• … that has been our lives for TWO weeks.
• Partly because of the upcoming holly-daze.
• Partly because of the weather.
• But I’m definitely cranky.
• I think mostly it’s people.
• I called this realtor to try to walk thru a house?
• The man WOULD NOT agree to show it to us.
• What. Is. That?
• He’s 50 miles away, it’s too far to drive …
• (then why is HE selling it?!?!?!)
• … it’s outdated and they’re going to renovate it…
• (WHY would a realtor do that?
• … what if the buyer wants to do it up THEIR way???)
• He was a pain in my gludious.
• And yes, we’ve been sort of peripherally looking at houses.
• For about a year, now.
• We have a dozen very important reasons,
• …but haven’t been SERIOUS about it, just yet.
• Not until certain things fall into place.
• We’re still not SERIOUS…
• But this is the first house we’ve seen that fits my requirements.
• I have a LOT of requirements.
• So we’re interested in at least getting inside of this.
• The dude pixxed me off so bad, we called OUR realtor.
• The guy we’ve always bought/sold thru.
• He’s agreed to take us thru it.
• You’d think the listing agent wouldn’t be a putz, though!
• Making a sale is how they earn their LIVING, no?
• Then there’s the Grand Rapids Santa Claus parade.
• It was November 17th, and it’s ALL over my FB feed.
• I’m CRANKY about it.
• It’s not even Thanksgiving, yet!!!
• You stupid, un-American, idiotic masses!!!!!!
• I’ll bet they’re all related to that realtor.
• Then there’s Black Friday.
• Which started yesterday, apparently.
• Nevermind that yesterday was MONDAY.
• Could this world BE any more stupid?
• I have been shopping, but nothing Black Monday related.
• I just do my on-line shopping mid-November.
• That ensures everything gets here on time.
• My mom said she’s not doing presents this year.
• She’s going to take the kids to some horse farm, instead.
• It sounds like my brother’s gift two years ago…
• a trip to a waterpark in a hotel.
• Except that… we never actually went.
• … so there never actually was a present.
• Pardon my cynicism about the horse farm, as a result.
• This also means that I have to make up for… whatever happens.
• So I’m spending a little more this year than usual.
• The whole thing…  …  …  …
• Nevermind.  I’m cranky.
• For the record, I’d like to be raptured for X-mess.
• Think Santa would like to hear THAT one?
• Oh, and the train!
• Did I tell you about the train?
• Last year, we went to see this huge X-mess train set-up.
• It was the LAST YEAR the man was going to put it up.
• He was retiring
• So we went to the mall, and saw the train.
• Then last week someone on FB said, “The train’s half up!”
• Apparently, it was a LIE – a gimmick – to get attention.
• It was on MLive and TV8 and Fox 17… this LIE last year.
• The women said, “He’s come out of retirement!  Joy!!”
• No… in order to come out of retirement, you have to RETIRE.
• He CONNED people to generate attention.
• And the women said, “Whatever do you mean?!?!?!”
• I don’t know… I thought deception was a pretty easy word to grasp.
• They said, “Well, we’re just glad to have him back!”
• From WHERE?!?!?  He didn’t go anywhere!!  It’s still there!
• I just… I can’t… that’s so… nevermind.
• People are so easily manipulated, anymore…
• It’s almost skeery.
• The good news is that Brian has FOUR DAYS off this week.
• Needless to say, what with the flu and the vacation,
• … we’re on a week-long school break.
• We’re still reading/watching our video lessons, but…
• No bookwork.
• I’m still in recovery mode.
• Seven sick people is a LOT.
• I’m just glad we all got it and it’s done.
• It put the hurt to my new challenge, though.
• I was supposed to start the 30-Day Shred yesterday.
• I joined a group – Santa’s Little Shredders.
• It was the ‘final push’ to my New Years’ Challenge.
• Except now I’m not starting until tomorrow.
• So I’m two days behind everyone else.
• That’s the way it goes when the flu hits, though.
• I hate being behind, for the record.
• Makes me cranky.
• So does being nauseous.
• Probably a big contributor to my mood.
• I’m… gonna go, now.
• Things will look better tomorrow… maybe.

Faith like Father Abraham

aNNa’S NoTe:  I know, I know… it’s Sunday.  But this was our Torah reading yesterday, and it was SOOO GOOD that I had to share it today.  Seriously good.  As always, I’ll underline, bold, and put my comments in green…

http://www.torahbytes.org/66-03.htm

The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” (Bereshit / Genesis 12:1)

These words to Abram (who would later become “Abraham”), explode into the narrative of the Torah. In these early chapters of Genesis, it is not until this point that we have any sense of plot formation. Until now we only have what appears to be a few unrelated, yet important, stories about the beginnings of human history. But now something new is beginning to unravel: God communicating to the man who will become God’s chosen instrument of blessing to the entire world. This one man, Abraham, would become the father of all those who would come to truly know God.

((aNNa’S NoTe:  Even the NT says, ‘By faith, Abraham…’ ))

It is Abraham’s life that will always be a model of what it means for the rest of us to know God. As the truth of God is revealed to us through others in the Scriptures, whether it be Moses, King David, the Prophets, and ultimately the Messiah himself, it will always be helpful to return to Abraham in order remind ourselves what it really means to be followers of God.

The life of Abraham challenges our understanding as to what true spirituality really is. The things that make up what most people think is the essence of spiritual reality were not foundational in Abraham’s life as we will see. The things that seem to be the most common aspects for many of us – whether we use these terms or not – are affiliation, ritual, morality, and mysticism. We will look at each one in relation to Abraham’s life, and then discover how his spiritual foundation should be ours as well.

((aNNa’S NoTe:  In other words, when Yehovah called Abram, He did specific things, and these things don’t change – as Yehovah doesn’t change.  So it’s beneficial to use Abraham as an example.))

For many people, their affiliation is the cornerstone of their spiritual experience. For some that is the only expression of any spiritual or religious reality in their lives. Whether that affiliation is by birth or by choice, it is their association with what they think is correct that makes them right with God as far as they are concerned. Whether they call themselves Jewish or Christian or a member of a particular congregation, denomination or non-denomination, they find security in that affiliation. It is perhaps this that Abraham challenges most of all, for he was called to leave his affiliations and associations and embrace something completely new and different from what few, if any, in his day understood. He was called to follow God without the encouragement of a group. Yet not only was he in step with reality, his decision to break with the past and the familiar became the model for all faithful followers of God after him.

((aNNa’S NoTe:  Abraham left his friends, his congregation, his neighbors, his job… EVERYTHING.  He had NO affiliation, because Yehovah chose for him not to.  Ironically, when Yehovah called me to serve, the first thing He did was pull me OUT of the church after 30 years of attending weekly.))

While ritual would eventually take a central place among Abraham’s descendants, it played a minor role in Abraham’s own life. He did build alters of sacrifice in his travels, yet these rituals were an expression of his spirituality, not the basis. This would become an issue that Israel in later years would struggle with as they would tend to reverse their priorities regarding the place of ritual in life.

((aNNa’S NoTe:  One of the toughies in my life, right now, because while Christian ritual is minor, Judaism is FULL of it… and I struggle with what I HAVE to do vs. what I WANT to do to show Him obedience and love.  This was a good thing for me to read.))

For some morality is the essence of true spirituality. For them believing in God is all about following a set of dos and don’ts. Certainly true spirituality includes a moral component as it did for Abraham (Bereshit / Genesis 26:5), but like the place of ritual in his life, the moral component was an expression of something deeper as we will see in a moment.

((aNNa’S NoTe:  Being ‘good’ doesn’t win someone a place in Heaven, as we all know.))

The fourth aspect that seems to be foundational for many is mysticism. I am using this term to refer to spiritual experiences that supposedly result out of a direct encounter with God or other non-material forces. This can be anything from emotions arising from religious activities to visions, dreams, divine healings, and so on. I am not commenting here in any way about the legitimacy of these types of experiences. I am only discussing them in relation to their place of importance in some people’s lives. For some these experiences are proof of spiritual reality. Whether some dramatic experience becomes what they hold onto in order to keep believing in God, or it is their desire for ongoing mystical experiences to keep them in faith, for these people mysticism is the focus of their spirituality, something very different from Abraham. Abraham certainly had mystical experiences, but they were not the essence of his spirituality. Like the other aspects above, his spiritual experiences were but a part of something much greater.

((aNNa’S NoTe:  This is the only one I take issue with… because it’s Abraham’s mystical experiences that WERE the cornerstone of his faith.  Without them, Abraham wouldn’t have known he had to sacrifice Isaac, that he even would HAVE a son, that he should even GO to Canaan, that he would even BE called to be the Father of all nations.  Which is why I only underlined the EMOTIONAL experience part.  Because they got that dead-on.  ‘FEELING’ the Lord is the big thing these days.  Most people don’t hear from Him, don’t have mystical experiences… they have emotional ones.  Abraham is the opposite – he didn’t have emotional experiences, he had mystical ones.  So mostly this is right.))

Abraham’s spirituality, while it included most of the aspects we have looked at, was not based on any of these things, nor were they his focus. What Abraham had was a relationship with God. These other things were but fruits of that relationship. Many people who focus on these aspects claim to have such a relationship, but they are working backwards. Right affiliation, meaningful ritual, godly morality, and true [emotional] experiences are the outcome of having a right relationship with God. It is having such a relationship that keeps these other things in balance. It is only as we attentively follow God as Abraham did – trusting in him and what he is saying to us – that we will truly know him and live life in the way he intended us to.

Story of the World — Chapter Twenty-Three

We’re making a quarter year study out of the Greeks (I know, and we’ve watched ‘Ulysses’ and two versions of ‘Jason & the Argonauts’ and have Greek Olympics to do (if we can get five minutes home when it’s light out and not raining with Daddy)… and that ON TOP OF our Greek lap-books, mythology cards, and mythology readings!

Also, this morning, I also found two amazingly done YouTube videos of ‘The Iliad’, and ‘The Odyssey’:

Pondering Presidents

Of course last week were the elections.  And because it was voting day, I wanted to do something with the kids.  Last time we did our Election Lapbook (LINK), but this time?  I decided it was time to put the presidents in our Book of Centuries.

Luckily, Homeschool Helper has a presidential lapbook collection of stuff (LINK), and I decided to use the ‘President Matchbooks’… which are a little more than halfway down the page.  Except that as I printed, the pictures kept getting smaller and smaller, until I was irate with the tiny little James K. Polk.  I had to pass on it and ‘cancel print’, because I don’t think president’s faces should be the size of my 2-year old’s pinkie nail.  You can’t really benefit from that, good intentions or no.

So I found another site, which was helpful in that it had the presidents listed in order with photos, so I ended up making the SAME kind of matchbooks (all over again), using pictures from this site (LINK)  But… where do they GET these pictures??  They don’t look anything like the dudes!  I went to Bing and did a search, and looked at all the pictures, and after seeing thirty different photos, you get a feel for what they REALLY look like… and it ain’t what the school sites have!  I used some of Donna’s pictures, but mostly not.

Because in order to have something you can really utilize, you have to do it yourself from the scratchest scratch, you know.  So I got the photos, made the matchbooks, and in order to make the files small enough to upload, I had to split them in three.  You can download my efforts here:

Presidential Matchbooks – 1
Presidential Matchbooks – 2
Presidential Matchbooks – 3

I have a unit study set aside for us to do on Presidents, for when we’re done with our state studies.  The link is in my archive, HERE.  So what we did was cut out all of our matchbooks (no easy feat in itself!) and put the president matchbooks in our Book of Centuries in their right places.  Then when we do the unit study, we’ll WRITE in those matchbooks what we learn.

The Dream

Last night, I had a funky dream.  Tell me what you think of this:

I was in some sort of classroom.  I was the only female, and all of the guys around me were in their late 20s or early 30s… I was the only one pushing 40.  The fact made me feel ancient… the fact that they looked like business guys and I was a housewife made me feel even more ‘odd-man-out’ than the age and sex things.  Anyhow, the ‘teachers’ were those two guys who created Google – Sergey somethin’r'other and… I kept referring to the other one as ‘Mark’ in my mind during the dream (maybe a Mark Zuckerberg reference?), but he was the other Google guy – dark hair, sharply dressed.  I’m not a Google fan, in any way/shape/form, so I don’t really know much about them, except what they look like.

They had a list on the chalkboard of songs I didn’t know (some of which had odd symbols for names), and their play lengths.  It was an enormous list, and I was supposed to have added up all of the times for each song, but I couldn’t – for some reason, I was afraid as I wrote them down, I would skip one, and so I kept going over and over my page, comparing it to what was on the board, making sure I had all of the numbers, names, and symbols right.  And I had no PC or calculator (and I don’t have a cellphone with that kind of capability), so I was the only one doing it all manually, with my head… so naturally I was WAY behind.  But I was determined to get the answer.

At the same time, Mark (the other Google guy) was lecturing about something, and I was trying to listen and taking notes, as well, so I had the calculation going, the board check going, and was listening and write down notes about the lecture at the same time.  Needless to say, I was scrambling. A lot.  But I’ve always loved study, and I thrive on that kind of thing… I just don’t like feeling like I’m behind the others… deficient.

Then Sergey came over and perched on the edge of the table I was working at, and he asked me what on earth I was scribbling so madly for.  And I explained that I was afraid of missing one of the songs, and there were just so many of them, and I was going as fast as I could… and he saw my notes, and mentioned that nobody else was taking notes.  Which made me feel stupid – apparently the others in the class could just… absorb?… what was being said, and I was inferior, because I was taking notes?  But that’s the way I’ve always operated – I like a paper trail, I like something to show for what I heard/learned.  Hard copy is important.

I promised him I would do a good job, and that I would get it right, and that I would finish the work.  He seemed pleased with me, but I wasn’t sure.  Then I lamely (because I talk too much) tried to explain that I was unfamiliar with these songs, and they looked strange to me… that I don’t listen to modern music… what I normally listen to was recorded a good sixty years before this stuff was dreamed up.  He asked me what I listen to, and oddly – in the middle of this class – I started singing:

Modern times have brought us many blessings
People live in wealth and luxury
But the Master still asks this question
Lovest thou Me, lovest thou Me, more than these?

I love Thee more than this old world could offer
All sinful follies I deny for Thee
My love, my life, my all, Lord, I pledge Thee
I love thee Lord, more than these

Lovest thou me, more than these My child?
What will, will your answer be?
Oh precious Lord, I love Thee more than all of these
More than fame
More than wealth
More than the world

Needless to say, he was more than slightly taken aback.  I apologized that the end didn’t exactly rhyme, that Doug Oldham should’ve done better than that… I have NO idea why I’d do that, except that I think I was slightly self-conscious.  But it seemed very important that I share that – right at that moment.  I was very choked up, and I felt like this was pivotal… and I realized I really meant every single word of that song… I wasn’t just singing words.  I was delivering MY message to this guy.

And then I woke up.  And was pretty shaken by it.  So… I have my own ideas of what symbolism was going on here.  I just thought it’d be fun to hear what you guys think.  ((grins))

Oh!  And in case you’re unfamiliar with the song, there’s not a Doug Oldham version available, but here’s Ernie Haase & Signature Sound’s version:

Patchwork Blog

G’morning!  I’m actually writing this a day ahead of time, because there’s so much going on, that I don’t want to be stuck doing it ALL tomorrow.  Besides, I have a little time [Tuesday] and I blog ahead often.  Wanna know how you can tell?  Check the date stamp.  If it says 11:11, I programmed it to post.  Nifty, eh?

Stay-cation!  Well, we really packed that time with Brian home full.  We did pumpkins.  Some of them BIG.  Fourteen of them, cleaned, cut, cooked, and pureed, and now frozen.  We washed, waxed, covered, moved, and winterized boats. 

Moving/covering boats this past Sunday.

We put the garden to bed, raked, moved bricks, moved blocks, and took care of the toys/yard stuff.  We moved rabbits, hung tarps, de-cobwebbed the coop, got hay, cleaned the goat barn, and prepped Critter Corner for winter (which came Monday night, in the form of our first snow!!).  We built easels, put up a railing to the basement, trimmed the pantry shelves, got out the winter mittens/scarves/hats and stored away bathing suits.  We grocery shopped, returned library books, and had a nice evening out at a Chinese Buffet, just for fun.  We watched too many episodes of ‘Alias’, and had a good time.

Superhero capes, blowing in the breeze by Home Base.

The Better News?  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and half of Saturday… and then I get Brian for another day and a half.  We like having him home.  We barely touched our to-do list.  And y’know…?  When I had Lydia and told my co-workers I was going to be a stay-home mom, half of them said, “Oh, you’ll be so BORED!  I could never do it.  You’ll be back to work in no time.”  And I had a two-page list of things to do once I quit the workforce.  I have NEVER finished that list – I didn’t/don’t have the time!  I have a feeling it’d be that same way for us if we were someday to play/win the lotto and Brian could stay home.  There’s just too much to DO.  ((Which is why he’ll never get to stay home – Yehovah’s sense of humor is like that.))

In Other News… Have you been following what’s going on out there?  It’s starting to freak me out, and I’m not… I watch this stuff so much, I’m rarely rankled.  I line it all up and rub my hands together, watching the action roll down the board.  But lately?  First there’s Israel/Syria.  I saw it ignite, and thought, ‘This is it – the beginning of what’s gonna go down’.  And then the news came in that undersea gas is coming up out of the earth off Haifa, Israel… and homiGAWSH.  That’s *it*.  That’s what will break the camel’s back.  That’s what they’ll go for.  It’s ALWAYS about oil/gas.  Always.  No question.  Then there’s Patrick Geryl’s earthquake predictions, which I would give any credence to, except that the man said things would start popping (and have you looked at IRIS, lately?!), not to mention the fact that he’s got a 100% track record so far (out of thirteen quake predictions.  He bases it off planetary/cosmic alignments – the more is lined up, the bigger the quake.  FYI.)  Oh, and BTW, he’s predicting a 10+ for 12/21/12.  Ironic, that.  And if that wasn’t fun enough, we have this huge obsession with an eclipse happening the 14… that is only visible to Australia.  Now, here’s my question:  If MOST of humankind can’t see it, why is it so immensely important?  If it were over Israel or had a transit seen by the majority of the nations… but this?  I don’t understand why the buzz is deafening regarding this.  Then there’s the approaching Mayan ‘restart’… which will be fun…

We the People.  A few days ago, I posted something brown.  Something ‘mostly for me’.  It was a line-up of some craziness I’d read at a crop circle site, leading up to November 14th (hey! Eclipse day!) that had something to do with an even happening, that involved ‘coming to meet’ ‘fish in the tank’… which, btw, I feel like, lately… I don’t know about you.  I’m a fish (Messianic symbol) still in the bowl, waiting for Him to ‘come and meet’ before December 31st.  NONE of this my terminology, so it set off every light I had, and then some.  It also said something about an event on November 7/8.  Well, that has come and gone, and I have to tell you… it was something emotional/mental that happened.  Because every person on the face of this earth was in a HIDEOUS mood on November 7/8.   And yeah, I’m betting you were in a funk, too.  I don’t know what it was about, but it was bad.  And while at first it seemed like a non-event… I realized that if it effects us – in ANY way – it’s not a non-event.  That can make or break a situation.  Which makes me wonder about the 14th.

Days to Watch!  So my list of days to watch keeps getting bigger… and bigger.  And this JUST up to December 31st, mind you.  I go no further than that, at this point. 

First, [Wednesday] is the 1% New Moon.  It’s also the 14th [crop circle event day].  It’s also the solar eclipse thinger that I don’t understand.  So sunset on November 14/15 is the first of Kislev.   And believe it or not, JewFAQ and I agree on the calendar, again (this doesn’t happen regularly, btw.)  So ALL of that on one two-day period… it’s a lot.  My guess is that Lydia hopes that’s not a rapture date, since the 16th is the opening of the last of the ‘Twilight’ movies, hahahaha…. I’m kidding.  ((ahem.))

Then, moving on, we have Chanukkah on December 9-16… and I’ve written about the possible implications before, so I won’t do it again.  But basically, the Light of the World (Messiah) came to Earth by way of conception on this ‘Festival of Light’… so the future re-fulfillment very likely could be the rapture – because while He ‘came’ on Chanukkah, He was not manifest to man until His birth.  Likewise, His ‘meeting us in the air’ would be His ‘coming’ at the rapture, but He will not be manifest to mankind until Armegeddon, later (on a Rosh Ha’Shanah).  So these are also HUGE watch days.

Then, of course, there’s 12/21/12... that lovely Mayan date (or not, depending on who you read).  The number is interesting, and Patrick Geryl [earthquake guy] is calling for the 10+ earthquake on that day.  Supposedly it’s also the date Earth crosses the Galactic plane, which is the primary reason the day was singled out, in the first place.  So fun stuff to watch.

Back to School.  Okay, enough of that.  You either pay attention or you don’t, I don’t care, your choice, moving on!  We took a few days off while Brian wasn’t at work, but because we school year round (mostly… or we have different times off), I’m not too worried.  We always get in the amount of time I want to, and so it’s not a problem for us.  But I had wanted to really get them back into the groove [Wednesday]…. except that it looks like the week is a wash.  Owen got the flu, then Aaron, then Isaac, and now Ethan.  It seems to only be a 12-hour bug, but… people are recovering.  My washing machine is recovering.  I need to give baths and do some cleaning.  Ethan is asleep as I type.  So I think we’ll just wait and get back in the groove next week.  Meanwhile, I’m praying Brian, Lydia, and I don’t get it, too.

Gone ‘Home’.  This past weekend (pre-sickness), we went ‘home’. 

Gone North to see ‘Iliad, Iliad, Iliad’… an MCC drama class production.

Well… When we got married, we bought a house up north of GR some, and lived there for nearly a decade… and we tried SO HARD to make it ‘home’.  It took most of that time just to be considered ‘local’ – the town was a little inclusive (to say the least).  We were involved in three churches, several local groups there… it didn’t matter.  You move to town instead of being born/raised there, and you’ll always be an outsider, pretty much.  But after nearly ten years, we *did* manage to wiggle in, just a little.  Which… was a WHOLE new experience for me. 

I grew up military.  After twelve years on air bases, I wasn’t prepared for all-inclusivity like that.  Where I came from, people didn’t stick around long enough to be inclusive.  You made friends fast and depended on people who gave of themselves, because your family was so far away, you didn’t have anyone else, and you didn’t have TIME to be a snob.  I didn’t get it… still don’t.  Civilians make my backside twitch, seriously.  They don’t get it, never got it, never will get it.  But anyhow, we went back ‘home’… and ran into a TON of people we knew from back-when this weekend.  And y’know?  While there were some good things about the area and the town and what was available for families/kids?  I just don’t… have a desire to go back to that, anymore.  Brian talks of moving back up that way, someday… but I say why go somewhere that you already busted your hiney trying to make work (and it never did), just to go thru that again?  It will never change.  And honestly?  Moving on often means something better.  I’m about that.

Having said, it has come to my attention (via a dream, in which my Isaac was a very tall, formidable sixteen year old) that I can’t have four strapping boys in one tiny bedroom for very much longer, together.  Yes, they’re little… now.  They fit in two bunk bed units just fine (with all their clothes in my room, so that their closet can be the toy shelves).  But there’s coming a time when… well, we’ll need more space.  And my FIRST line of thought is that we won’t have to worry about it – that Ha’Shem has provided what we needed for the time we would need it, and there won’t BE a time past that.  But my SECOND line of thought is starting to consider where we’ll be going, next.  It’s quite the something to think about.

Prepper Stuff.  I don’t write about prepper stuff, anymore.  At this point, I figure it’s too late to reach the level of preparedness needed for what’s coming.  But it seems the Lord thinks otherwise – that it’s never too late to do what you can… even if it won’t be enough.  Like with Hurricane Sandy – I read this article (LINK) this morning, about how the East Coasters had a WHOLE week’s notice to get food supplies, fill water jugs…. and instead, they spent $5 a morning on Lattes, then wailed when they had nothing.  And all they had to do was heed the warnings.  I started prepping/warning in 2006… and like I said – it takes a LONG time (or a ton of $$) to get prepped, and I don’t personally think there’s time, anymore.  But this morning, I was directed to a site with 12 ‘months’ of things to do to make sure you’re ‘prepped’.  I found it very interesting – so I thought I’d share the (LINK) here.  But mostly I don’t go to survival sites.  In fact, the only thing I read is my Yooper friend Deborah’s page… she’s doing a fictional series about SHTF using her own life/situation, and it’s kind of a fun to read her daily episodes.

Isaac and Lydia helped clean pumpkins for me.

Only a part of what I had to cook/puree/freeze!

Weight Watching.  Consider this my check-in for the week… I have neither gained nor lost any weight this week.  Which is REALLY good… because of the Chinese buffet thing and the we’ve been sick and Brian’s been home, so I haven’t been getting in my time on the elliptical or my morning workout.   So the fact that I haven’t gained?  ((Probably all the outdoor clean-up off-set it?)) It’s a GOOD thing.

Yes, well.  I have talked your ear off, and now I think I’m going to go stop thinking for a few minutes and finish the last of the pumpkin and get in a game of Triple Town.  I have discovered ‘Boom Town’ – a mode in which you have exactly two minutes to build an entire town.  Lydia has so kicked my hiney… I need to catch up.  ((wink!))

Prophecies for… well, now!

aNNa’S NoTe:  I have to preface this:  I’ve read this before.  I’ve probably written about it, before.  But in my old age, my memory is going, and so I get re-geeked… or geeked for the first time, I don’t know, anymore.  It’s something from a Jewish site, and I’m sharing because I think the Lord presented this to me (first or second time, who knows) at this particular point for a reason.  It’s confirmation.  Which I was begging for.  And which I apparently have now received.  Anyhow, I’m going to put my comments in green. 

excerpted from writngs of Dov bar Leib, with a few edits and expansions by Reb Akiva on Mystical Paths

The Rebbe Rashab, Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, was the 5th Lubavitcher Rebbe.  Based on the Zohar Vayeira 119a, he started the custom of Seudat HaMashiach (celebrating the coming the return of Mosiach) on the last day of Pesach 5666 (Hebrew year matching our secular year 1906/07). 

The previous verse says basically that B’itah, Geulah in it’s time (final redemption), cannot come before that year 5666 (1906/07).  Yet, all the events that are described in the Zohar that happen B’itah began to unfold with the Shoah (Holocaust) starting just before the year 5700 (1939/40).  So we begin the time count of the Zohar’s list of events from there. 

((I looked it up – WWI was partially caused by a Naval Race that occurred 1906-1914 [the beginning of WWI] between Britain and Germany.  LINK.  So the date given is significant, and was the ‘kick-off’ to the events of the end times.  I wondered if WWI weren’t the starting place… and that’s right!  But according to this, we start counting from 1939/40.  Let’s continue.))

Both the Al Aksa Intifada in 5760 (1999/2000) and the 2nd Israeli-South Lebanon War in 5766 (2005/2006) are signposts specifically mentioned in this Zohar that we can mark as having occurred!  As a matter of fact the Rebbe Rashab did say that while he was setting up Seudat HaMashiach in 5666 (1906/07) , the Geulah events described in this Zohar would not take place for another 100 years.

((So they were saying that while the rabbi started that period in 1906, the Geulah/end times could not take place for 1000 years.  That takes us to 2006/07… the year Solana’s ENPI was signed and put into effect!))

Here is the Zohar in question: 

When the 60th year shall have passed over the threshold of the 6th millennium, the G-d of Heaven will visit the daughter of Ya’akov with a preliminary peqidah (a final Din v’Cheshbon – a final judgement). 

The Al Aksa Intifada started on the second to last and last days of the year 5760 (1999/2000) with Sharon ascending the Temple Mount 36 hours before Rosh HaShana and worshipers at the Western Wall being pelted with boulders hours before the onset of Rosh HaShana.  Since peqidot are usually pronounced on Rosh HaShana, this final peqidah was decreed on Rosh HaShana 5760 not Rosh HaShana 5761.  Plus the first full year of the Shoah was the year 5700 so that the 60 years began on Rosh HaShana 5700.

((It’s 5773/2012-13, right now.  So if the 60 years began in 5700/1938-9… then they started with the Shoah/Holocaust.  The verse says in 1938 there’s a preliminary ‘pequidah’ – which means ‘appointed time’.  Israel being massacred would definitely be a major appointed time!  So the sixty years starts in 1938/39, bringing us to 1998/99.))

Another 6 1/2 years will elapse and there will be a full remembrance of her.

((Add six and a half more years, and we’re at 2005/06.  It was 2005/06 when Arafat was replaced by Abbas, and the ‘peace process’ with Israel took a major turn – and became a front-and-center news item.  It’s also when Sharon went into his coma. Big changes on the world scene in regards to Israel… 2005 was the disengagement from the Gaza Strip… bringing about a ‘full remembrance’ of her.))

Then another 6 years, making together 72 1/2 years.  In the year 66 Mashiach will appear in the Land of the Galil.   

((Another six years is 2011/12. And what was prophesied to happen?))

A star in the east will swallow seven stars in the north. 

I am sure that this was an astronomical event which did occur as the molad for Siwan 5772 when the sun in the annular total solar eclipse was aligned with the 7 Sisters (the Pleiades).  The 7 Sisters are definitely a northern constellation with declination expressed in degrees north.  The sun of course was coming from the east and headed west.  So this was that event, the molad for Siwan 5772… 

((Do you remember the May 20th solar eclipse? Here’s what I wrote: ” May 20, 2012 – last month – there was another special eclipse, this time seven days BEFORE Shavuot/Pentecost… on Ascension Day. A HUGE event, all around the world.   This time?   It’s not an engagement ring eclipse… it’s a WEDDING ring eclipse.  If we were reminded of the promise that He left to prepare a place for us with the 2003 eclipse, we are now being reminded of the promise that we are His bride, the people that are about to be redeemed by the one who has given us our engagement ring.”  A BIG deal!))

And a flame of Black Fire will hang in the rakia for 60 days. 

… I asked a mekubal about this, and he said that this pasuk is a spiritual pasuk representing the hidden but immanent presence of G-d affecting the world in a natural way to prepare the world for what comes next.  Right after Tisha B’Av the Syrian Civil War which had been taking less than 1000 lives per month exploded and started taking 5000 lives per month.  This was at the end of the 60 day period that began on Isru Chag of Shavuot right after the molad for Siwan.  So every month starting with August, 5000 Syrians have died per month.

((A ‘pasuk’ is a verse.  Apparently [and I didn't know this!] the Syrian thing escalated at this point, a ‘flame of Black Fire’.))

And there will be wars in the north in which two kings will perish.

Remember the events of the Zohar are written from the perspective of Israel (the physical location).  Currently 1 war rages in Israel’s north, the Syrian civil war.  Parts of this war are spilling over into Lebanon, and Hizbollah fighters from Lebanon are participating in Syria.  Additionally Turkey is firing across the Syrian border to push internal Syrian military actions off their border.  Wars are raging in Israel’s north but but the 2 kings have not yet perished. 

Then all the nations shall combine together against the daughter of Ya’akov in order to drive her from the world.   It is of that time that it is written:  “And it is a time of trouble onto Ya’akov, but out of it he shall be saved.” (Yirmiyahu 30:7) 

((ALL nations come against her… that means America, too.  Which is another indicator – from scripture! – that Obama might just be Yehovah’s will.))

…In the year 73 all the kings of the world will assemble in the great city of Rome, and HaKodesh Baruch Hu will shower on them fire and hail and meteorites until they are all destroyed, with the exception of those who will not yet have arrived there.

((The Year 5773 began this September and goes thru September 2013.  Just in case you didn’t know.))

…I am not predicting.  I am just presenting the evidence that we are in process for the period of time in this Zohar for 5772 1/2 through the year 5773.  In the future we will discuss the timetable in Medrash Sefer Eliyahu for 5773, 5774, and 5775 dealing with the three year war and explosive outbreak of full scale war in the Sabbatical year between Rome and Persia. 

((Which is pretty amazing, since Revelations says that there will be a three-and-a-half-year war in Jerusalem.  Remember, the Jews don’t read Revelations – it’s New Testament.  According to the Jews, that time happens sometime between now and 5775/2015.  Which, BTW, fits my Six-Month Suggestion… if Revelations 8 begins in January, with a’silence in heaven for about ‘half an hour’ – which the church teaches is 3-ish years))

The King of Arabia (today Saudi Arabia) will seek advice from the White House (Lavan the king of Aram) what to do about Persia waxing in power in the world. And Persia will go forth to take over the world. And everyone will grab their abdomen as if in the pangs of birth, and scream out to G-d. And G-d will then tell his children, “Don’t worry my children. The time of your Redemption has arrived.”

aNNa’S FiNaL NoTe #1:  The ONLY parts of this that I wrote (other than the header and footer) are the green inserted portions.  As a reminder.
aNNa’S FiNaL NoTe #2:  I have been wondering if what I’d been given was right.  The Six-Month Suggestion?  Maybe it was just for the seals.  Maybe I’m off.  Maybe I’ve botched it with my own stuff.  But this prediction matches PERFECTLY, not only with milestone events regarding Israel, but also my Six Month Suggestion.  So I repeat -I believe He gave this as confirmation for me, in my time of confusion/doubt.  So I keep looking up!