Month: March 2013

  • Weirdness in my World

    •   I… am not faring well, today.  Remember the tree that split a few weeks ago, and fell across my goat pen? It was a BIG tree – and only half of it fell. We chopped it up, but the half that’s still standing is rotten.  Completely deteriorated, and it’s BIG, and it’s right between the goat pen, chicken coop, rabbit hutches, and Lydia’s bedroom.  I can’t have it falling on Lydia (and I wouldn’t be fond of flattening any critters, either)… so we called a tree chopper dude, and he’s HERE.  And he’s IN MY SPACE, and he’s got two grizzly, grunty dudes that are sticking their fingers thru the fence at the goats, and… and…

      I’m not having a stress-free morning, truth be told.  I don’t LIKE people.  Not out ‘there’ (wherever that is), and especially NOT nosing around on our land, sticking their fingers in at our critters.  I don’t like them scoping out our set-up, our possessions, our way of life.  I don’t LIKE it.  It’s nobody’s business, nobody’s.  And there they are, sniffing around, out there - I’m watching them do it!  I may lose weight and some blonde strands to gray by the time they leave.  I just had to put that on here, for posterity’s sake.  Not happy, Bob.  And not so much as a twig has even been dropped yet.

    • In other weirdness, I lay awake for a LONG time last night, trying to sleep, but one thought kept driving me crazy:  WHY would the Pope resign so close to (and before) Easter?  The timing is driving me crazy.  It happened just two weeks before the holiest week in their year, hello… why?  Isn’t that awfully close?  Couldn’t they have waited until AFTER the holiday?  Whole ‘nother thing?  It was so fast, so unexpected, so swifty executed, from farewell to Frank… it feels wrong.  I’m missing something, there.  What is it?  Why did it happen right before Easter, like that?  I don’t know.  If you have any ideas, I’m open to hearing them, because this seems really weird, and is bugging the heck out of me.
    • Not to change the subject, but did you see the asteroid defense article?  It’s called “If it’s Coming in Three Weeks, Pray.”  No crap, that’s the title of the secular asteroid defense article!  What is that?!?!?  Other than out of the blue, really freaky weird, and… and… my mind is yet again blown.  Here, let me get that for you:

    http://earthsky.org/…nasa-asteroid-defense-if-its-coming-in-three-weeks-pray

    On February 15, a small asteroid exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, generating shock waves that shattered windows and injured some 1,500 people. On that same day, asteroid 2012 DA14 made a close pass by Earth, at a scant 17,200 miles (27,700 km) from our world’s surface, closer than some communication satellites.

    In response to these events, the U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee met in a hearing on March 19, 2013. The hearing was titled Threats from Space: A Review of U.S. Government Efforts to Track and Mitigate Asteroids and Meteors. Scientists and lawmakers discussed the risk of, and defense strategy for, an unforeseen asteroid or meteor on collision course with Earth. While trying to emphasize the need for adequate funding for detecting and characterizing near-Earth objects, and diverting them if necessary, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said:

    From the information we have, we don’t know of an asteroid that will threaten the population of the United States. But if it’s coming in three weeks…pray.

    In other words, unless we know in advance that an asteroid is coming – and therefore have time to divert it – there is little we could do about an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Bolden added:

    The reason I can’t do anything in the next three weeks is because for decades we have put it off.

    …as Chairman Smith pointed out:

    The meteor that struck Russia was estimated to be 17 meters and wasn’t tracked at all. The smaller they are, the harder they are to spot, and yet they can be life-threatening. Some space challenges require innovation, commitment and diligence. This is one of them.

    …John Holdren said the best way to detect objects that might be on a collision course with Earth would be to put an infrared-sensing telescope in a Venus-like orbit. Holdren estimated the cost of such a telescope to be between $500 million and $750 million. …NASA’s hunt for threatening asteroids will be affected by federal sequestration cuts, and at present funding levels NASA estimates it will take nearly 20 years to identify all potentially threatening Near Earth Objects.

    So basically, we don’t know what’s out there, we don’t have an early warning signal that would allow Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck to go out there and blow it up before it hit us and… where it gets weird is Charles Bolden’s statement.  Why three weeks?  What in the WORLD brought that statement out?  Do they know (or expect) something we don’t?  My gosh, that came out of left field.  I just… wOw.

    Anyhow, they (being secular) missed the significance of the Chelyabinsk meteor that I shared last month – that there was a divine REASON it hit Chelyabinsk, and a real message to be had from it (see LINK).  But the thing that gets me is that they’re expecting more from a secular view, and *I’m* expecting more from a Revelations 8 view… and the two views are in complete accord.  But more… they seem to have information I don’t – the ‘three weeks’ thing just struck me as important.  It’s weird…

    • uPDaTe:  In my comments, someone pointed something else out that I probably should mention as completely out there.  Today (Thursday) is 10 Nisan, four days before Pesach.  Today is the day we are to bring the lamb that we plan to cook for the Passover meal into our homes.  And y’know what else happened today (10 Nisan) in Israel?  Obama arrived for a visit.  The Jews are NOT happy – this is their holiest time, and all of the attention is being taken of Yehovah Elohim and being redirected to the President of the United States, instead.  I just… don’t understand why the Israeli gov’t would allow such a visit at this particular time.  It’s weird, don’t you think?  Why now?  Why not AFTER the feast, so that Obama has all the attention and people aren’t in the middle of their preparations.  Wouldn’t that be smarter for Obama?  There’s something there that I’m missing, too.  Unless his plan *was* to screw things up for the Jews, like a sliver in their palm, r’something….

  • Cranky, Cranky, Cranky 

    I am majorly cranky.

                It might not be a good idea for me to post.

    First there was Compassion.  I have sponsored two children for some time, with the kids, to show how we try to help others.  But to be honest, I’ve had a problem since coming out of christianity with giving money to teaching kids wrong doctrines.  I thought about pulling my sponsorship and giving to TorahClass.org, instead, but… you hate to yank the sponsorship from a child, right?  So I’ve let it sit, figuring the Lord would tell me when the time was right to do something different.  Well, a week ago, I got a letter from one of my children.  In it, she says that she’s being taught good things at her ROMAN CATHOLIC church.  I. Was. Livid.  It’s a hard enough thing for me to give money to christians – at least they have a semi-Biblical outlook, but the RCC?  That pushes me WAY too far.  And what IS that, anyhow???  She’s in a tiny village in Indonesia.  You can’t tell me that they have TWO missions in the same tiny village – one Catholic and one evangelical.  No.  The whole thing felt (and smelled) wrong.

    So I wrote and said I was discontinuing my sponsorship, and shame on them for partnering with the Catholic church… and yesterday they called me.  They said that they can’t say what church the child is going to, but they wouldn’t teach Catholic principles.  So basically the children are going to Catholic church, and use the evangelical idiots for meds, food, and money?  That’s NOT what I signed up for… I was hoping at least SOME Truth was getting to the children.  I was really upset.  The woman says that religion shouldn’t be the deciding factor, but isn’t that the WHOLE POINT, with Compassion?  Getting the Word to the children, while providing services, too?  I… can’t think like that.  And that’s not even addressing the glossy magazines my sponsorship $$ put out, in the name of Jee-zus.  I… got pushed too far.  That was the Lord redirecting my funds to the Truth.  I’m officially going to sponsor TorahClass, instead, as my ‘offering’.

    Next, I got an invitation to my ex-theatre group’s annual meeting.  Ha!  Hahahahaha… I. Don’t. THINK. So!!!  Have you seen the board, lately?  Including the witch that’s on medication for her behavioral issues and cancelled rehearsals 45 minutes before they started (I had an hour drive) and then yelled at me, humiliated me, and threw me out of the cast for showing up like a responsible adult?  Screw them!  Like I even wanted to HEAR from them?  And that wench is on the board!!   ((That explains why my letter about the situation went unanswered, though, doesn’t it?  Unprofessional, and shame on the president.))  At this point, I’m praying they go bankrupt and fold.  I… have a lot of anger, there, still, apparently.  And having that on the heels of Compassion probably didn’t help my mood, any.

    Then my mom called (read: had Pop call, because she doesn’t like doing it herself).  She wanted to know if we want to do Pesach with them.  My short answer?  No.  The woman doesn’t even keep the regular Sabbaths, and I’m supposed to want to have our feast with them?  Um, NO.  Feasts are special.  Sacred, more holy than even a Shabbat.  And my brother isn’t even Messianic (he’s still chrischun), and… that bothers me, having Pesach with people who aren’t even on-board, or do it half-assedly out of obligation.  But I don’t want to hurt my family… so I said that we’re having OUR feast as family (without them) *ON* Pesach, but if she wants to have a celebration on another day, we would come (to make her happy).  Which probably didn’t make her happy, but… it’s always a fiasco when we include them.  They don’t know what’s going on (even after YEARS of this), they confuse everything, and I don’t like the discordance of the special event when it’s a mixed family thing.  And it’s MY life, my obedience, too, hello!  So THAT phone call went over like a lead balloon, too, and now I’m the uncooperative, pain-in-the-p’toot person, yet AGAIN.  It sucks to be me.

    Just… GOOD GRIEF.
    And, yes, why yes, I’m a tad bit cranky.

    I was supposed to call the tree choppers, but after all that, I called Brian and asked HIM to do it.  They showed up this morning and I got to show them around – it’s going to be $300 to take the rest of that tree down – the one that fell in the goat barn?  But the March winds are upon us, and we’re worried about the rest of the ((((rotten))))) tree falling on the house or something.  So… unless we want to dismantle critter corner to try to do it ourselves (and the only way we can drop it might result in taking out our neighbor’s pine barrier, and I don’t want that to happen, either)… it looks like the tree choppers will be here, tomorrow.  In Critter Corner.  I… also have issues with this.  I don’t like people here, scoping things out.  I like our privacy.  It’s just more to add to my crankies.  And that’s $300 I hate to see go to a dude in Carhartt’s with a chainsaw… that’s a LOT of money.  But what can you do?

    Oh, and I forgot about the e-mail.  A few years ago I went to an geneology site, just out of curiosity, to see if there was anything about my family on there… and there was a woman in CA who was looking for members of the GR branch of the family, so she could get some updated information.  I left a reply with my (now old) e-mail… but never heard back.  Well, a few days ago I went to that old e-mail addy, to see if there was anything there, and I got a reply from a family member (something like five times removed)… he saw my reply and addy and thought he’d ask about our branch of the family.  ((I’m the Jerold branch, he’s the Claude branch.))  So I went to write him back and… y’know, I don’t know ANYTHING about the family, anymore.  They’re all turning inward, not keeping connected the way they used to.  Heck, I found out my cousin’s kid got married a few weeks ago by lurking around on-line, for pity’s sake!  How sad is that shit?  It just… is depressing. 

    And I got out the geneology book that I have, and it’s ALL pencilled over, because it’s 20 years old and a LOT has happened since then, and so I set about adding a few pages… but I don’t have any dates, and can’t ask anyone (except my mother, who doesn’t keep track because she simply doesn’t care)… I don’t know.  It’s just really upsetting, because… I vowed that family would MEAN something to me and my kids.  It didn’t to my mom or my siblings, and so I wasn’t raised that way (being hundreds or thousands of miles away, in the Air Force)… and no matter how hard I try, I have to forage for anything, anymore.  Is it worth it?  Maybe my mom had it right – it’s just stupid, anyhow.  But I don’t feel that way in my heart, and it hurts that we’re so… disconnected, anymore.  How discouraging.

    Yeah.  SO.  There you have it. 
                 I think I need to go have some cocoa, r’something… 

  • Patchwork Blog


    G’morning!      It is snowing like crazy, over here!!  I love it… don’t get me wrong, but it always seems to happen on a Tuesday.  Just in time for us to drive to dance class the next night.  I’m just sayin’… LoL!!  At least we have the 24 hours for them to plow, right?  It’s still crazy how it always works that way.  But it’s beautiful, and keeps the critter pens from thawing into mush-mud.  So I love the snow!

    Maple Sugaring!  Well, I have to update you on our home sugar-bushing efforts.  After tapping the trees, we got FOUR GALLONS of sap on Sunday… from just eight trees around the play yard (we didn’t even go into the woods on our property!).  So I spent Sunday and Monday boiling down the sap, and by 10pm last night, we had a mason jar full of syrup.  Really good taste, too!  But of course with it dropping to 20 degrees out there, today, the sap isn’t running, right now.  That’s okay… a little reprieve is good, too.

    Counting to Ten!  Did I mention that one of my New Years’ (5773) resolutions was to learn to count to ten in ten languages?  Well, the kids are doing it with me, of course.  ((They learned Pi to 15 digits when I was making it to 30-digits, too.))  We’re doing one language a month, and it’s going SO well!!  We’ve got English (naturally), Sign, Hebrew, Spanish, German, French, and now we’re doing Roman Numerals, this month (which is actually a unit study, of its own).  There’s a lapbook I’ve bookmarked, but we haven’t done it, and I’m not sure if I should, or not.  We’ll see.  Anyhow, I have created a flipbook of our 1-to-10 languages (I have Norwegian, Russian, Chinese, Greek, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, and more to go!), and it’s been pretty kewl.  I heart homeschooling.  Maybe I’ll upload the flipbook to Keep’n'Share for people?

    Ishtar Issues.  I got VERY confused this morning.  See, EarthSky said that tomorrow is the Spring (Vernal) equinox, and I always thought that Easter (Ishtar) was the Sunday after the Vernal equinox… but Ishtar isn’t until TWO Sundays from now.  So… what the heck!?  I was kind of kerfuddled, to say the least.  But upon doing a little research, I found out that the Catholics threw the full moon into the mix.  So Ishtar is the Sunday after the closest full moon to the Vernal equinox.  Gotttttcha.  Y’learn something new every day.  And that’s kind of funny, actually.  Because first they frick up Passover by having it on the wrong date in relation to a pagan feast.  Then they added more frick by throwing in a FULL moon, when everything Biblicals has always and will always be related to the NEW moon.  Idiots.

    SolanaBlog!  Know what else I found out this morning?  SOLANA HAS A BLOG!!  I knew he likes to tweet (I’m not a tweeter… too wordy for that), but I didn’t know he has a blog.  Naturally, it’s in Italian, but I have a Swedish blog that I read everyday (Badut) that I was linked to via Google Translate, so that I can read it.  So this morning I had to go off and figure out how to apply Google Translate to other blogs, so that I can read Solana’s stuff.  And I did it, too!!  ((Love learning new things, have I mentioned that?))  So here’s the translated link to Solana’s blog (LINK), in case you were interested!!

    UpDating…  You probably didn’t notice, but I’ve been working hard at updating the sidebar, again… and I’ve got all of my ‘Story of the World’ posts caught up… although we have kind of stalled, because I added films and such in there, which set us behind… or deepened the study, depending on how you look at it.    We’re also taking a break from poetry this year, because… well, we’ve got so much going!  Counting and Pi and fairy tales and LegoQuest and the regular school stuff…!!  So our charcoal was falling by the wayside… UNTIL I got the idea to combing fairy tales with charcoal.  So now we’re going to do our art based on our fairy tale readings.  So I can start updating that, again, too!  And I *really* got to get to my Pinterest and split things down, a little.  It’s on my to-do list… for later.

    Contest Books.  A long time ago, I read ‘The Hunger Games’ trilogy.  I didn’t like them.  At all.  And I didn’t watch the movie, because the books were enough, thankyouverymuch.  Anyhow, I was browsing Amazon (it’s how I find books to check out from the library – I don’t have time to spend there, with five littles, anymore).  So I look something up, and see what’s similar, and kind of link from one to another until I find things I might like to read.  I had gotten a freebie ‘Beauty and the Beast’, which led me to other fairy tale retellings in TeenFic, and then to princess books… and I found a book called ‘The Selection’.  The premise was 35 girls from 7 districts.  Selected, shipped to the palace, and in a contest to win the role of the prince’s bride.  May the best girl win.  And I thought, “WoW!  Hunger Games meets Cinderella?  That could be fun.”  It… wasn’t fun, it was a drag, and the heroine sucks (she ‘stands out’ because she’s a belligerent snark, and that’s supposed to be ‘refreshing’?)… Of course our girl is poor and from an outlying area where she has a true love (Aspen, not Gale, but both named after nature)… it’s a TOTAL steal from THG.  Anyhow, I got to thinking about ‘The Hunger Games’… and yeah.  I caved.  Brian and I are watching it.  It stayed pretty close to the book, but… yuck.  That should NOT have been rated ‘PG-13′.  FYI.  But anyhow… 4/23/13 the sequel to ‘The Selection’ comes out.  I hate admitting that I’m going to snag and read it… but I have to know.  Is the author a Gale or Peeta fan?  Because if she didn’t like ‘The Hunger Games’ ending… she might change things up.  So there’s my embarrassing admission of the day.

    Spring Trip!!  Every spring, we go on a trip.  ((Personally, I’m hoping to be raptured before it’s time, but then, we’re talking ME, here, so you already knew that.))  We go to Great Wolf Lodge, and then set up to see something on the way home… or add a little trip to it.  We were supposed to go to Mackinaw Island this year.  I… don’t WANT to.  I just don’t want to.  So… I got five books from the library, and I’m also studying up on other things to see and places we can go.  Found some nice ones, too!  We shall see… but I’m feeling better now that we scrapped the island idea.

    Okay!  Well… I think that’s it, for now.  I’ll letcha go, and I’ve got laundry to fold (I did laundry while boiling sap, yesterday… LOTS of laundry.  Blankets and coats and more kinda laundry.)… so I gots t’scoot.  But have a good day – enjoy that beautiful, billowing snow!!

  • Hebrew Helps

      One of the things I’ve wanted to do with the kids is learn some basic Hebrew.  But I want to do it kid-style, and free.  Of course, we have been watching our Shalom Sesame videos, but we need something a little more intensive than that, and I’ve known it.  And of course we learned our letters using the Aleph-Bet song by Debbie Friedman:

    But what I really need is a Salsa Spanish series for Hebrew.  Or someone to make “Signing Time”-like videos for Hebrew for Children.  But that’s not going to happen.  So I have gathered some resources, and… well, I haven’t really gotten to use them.  Mostly because we couldn’t cram six of us around a laptop screen to do it.  But now that we can plug the laptop into our (((new!))) flat-screen TV?  I can really start doing Hebrew!

    Let’s start with worksheets.  At Hebrew4Christians, there’s a pdf of worksheets to learn to write the Hebrew letters. Actually they have one for tracing, and one for writing.  There’s also one at Aklah, so here they are:

    H4C – http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Alphabet_Practice.pdf (writing)
    H4C – http://www.hebrew4christians.com/homeschool.html (tracing/writing)
    Aklah – http://www.akhlah.com/hebrew/worksheets/

    I actually like the writing pages at H4C, on the second link.  I printed them off for us to use.

    In addition, I found a bunch of videos on YouTube that help students to learn Hebrew.  But they’re NOT in order there, and I needed to put them in order, for my own use, so I thought I’d do it here, to benefit others, as well.  We’ll start with the Twebrew lessons, that teach the letters and how to know what sound they make based on context clues.  These lessons are SUPER short, so doing a few in a row, together, seems to be the best way to go.  So while there’s 23, you can probably do them over a week or two.

    Intro – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PccHWd7jfnw
    01 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YRgQYDU8qg
    02 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgeARFeydLY
    03 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-MO1nbODpU 
    04 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSEWeQWZ_DE
    05 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA8LunGEG-I
    06 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIoSitxStbs
    07 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6dU9a2wnzA
    08 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRJxg2C4-eI
    09 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKEKCNqiS7w
    10 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hQAkWifVZc
    11 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mExgWTf5kkQ
    12 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sifbceUw5Mo
    13 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su-wZZ4MdQw
    14 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqtHCc9p4j4
    15 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYz-RuBHMoE
    16 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOR0ylBIxmE
    17 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsczXLaQx3A
    18 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJoj24wSnaY
    19 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ghFIgepJbk
    20 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J07jrlEkJZE
    21 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0zdT2lHuV4
    22 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi_N_jtNN-A
    23 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9dPfslOE9I

    You probably noticed that my numbering doesn’t match theirs.  That’s because there are videos missing from their series on-line.  I can only work with what’s there, so I re-numbered, to make it easier.  Oh!  No way.  Hey, I just figured out that if you access it via this link (LINK), that it has them in order.  Even better!!

    Anyhow, those first 23 lessons are to learn the letters, their names and sounds.  Here are two charts to help with that:

    Aleph-Bet – http://torahinmyheart.com/…docs/Hebrew_Alef_Bet_Chart…jpg
    Twebrew – http://www.beingjewish.com/images/njopaleph.jpg

    After that, I hope to move into eTeacher Hebrew’s series.  The first six lessons are the aleph-bet, but since ALL of the Twebrew videos teach the aleph-bet (sounds, letters, reading), we don’t really need that.  So we jump into the actual speaking lessons, instead.  The playlist is here (LINK), or here are the individual lessons:

    07 – Introducing yourself in Hebrew
    08 – Where are you from?
    09 – Names of Countries
    10 – Pronouns 
    11 – Foods
    12 – Pluralizing nouns
    13 – Manners
    14 – Numbers
    15 – The Clock
    16 – Counting Objects
    17 – Days of the Week
    18 – Intro to Vocabulary
    19 – Family
    20 – The human body

    Anyhow, that’s what I’ve collected together, so far.  I’m trying to condense some of my resources into one link for my homeschool archive, and hopefully this will help a lot.  Hope it helps you, too!

  • Our Adventures:  It’s Sugarbush Time!

    This weekend, we went to Sugarbush at Blandford Nature Center.  It’s actually our second time going… I think Lydia was four or five last time, and I had Isaac in a sling and wore him thru the tour, that’s how long ago it was.  And we’d gone with a HUGE homeschooling group, so I didn’t hear half of it, and… well, I was excited to go back – this time with kids that were older and with Brian along, too!

    May 9th was actually the Sugarbush festival, with tours all day, a pancake breakfast, and all sorts of activities.  But you know me – I don’t like people.  The festival promised to be packed (because everything around here, is), BUT…!  I went to the website and checked their calendar, and they were having a smaller tour the next weekend, open to limited participation.  So THAT sounded more our speed, and we signed up!

      I learned a LOT this time around.  Way more than last time, for sure.  First, did you know that sugar maples are not found throughout the US?  No… here’s a map of the only area in the world that has sugar maples… and of that, the green areas are the ONLY areas that have the proper temperatures for getting maple sugar.  The yellow areas have sugar maples, but do not have the correct temperature for the trees to be tapped.  And the blue area above is an area that has them, but is too cold.  It’s what they predict will be able to sugarbush, if temperatures keep increasing.  But right now, the green areas are where 99.9% of the maple syrup in the world is from.  I hadn’t realized that most people CANNOT go to a sugarbush!  I mean, this time of year, we drive around out by where we live, and it’s common to see trees with blue sacks or hoses tapped into them.  It’s kind of a thing… a lot of people do it.  I always wanted to, but… it wasn’t until Sugarbush yesterday that it even became a possibility.

    Last time, they told us to identify a sugar maple by its bark… which, depending on its age could be smooth or rough or even rougher… and I was completely baffled and unable to identify jack squat.  THIS time, though, the lady explained to us that the better way to identify the sugar maple was by it’s buds and branches.   A sugar maple has syrup colored (darker brown) buds, while other maples have red or branch-colored buds.  Also, a sugar maple has OPPOSING branches (like two arms off a body – opposite of each other), while other maples have ALTERNATING branches.  Now that I can work with!  We’ve been identifying them, ever since.

      Trees get tapped two to three feet from the ground, because the sap runs downward, so to collect it, you drill a hole about 2″ into the sapwood.  Here they let the kids try it with a hand drill… even Baby Owen!  Then they got to tap the spile into their hole, just like the real thing.  Of course a bucket or sack (or hose) gets hooked up to that, and a lid put on the bucket to protect the sap from debris.

    We got our own tour guide – apparently our family of seven is a whole group on its own!  It was kind of nice, not having strangers with us, this time around.  I don’t think it was supposed to have worked that way, but when it was time to go, Denise was like “Okay, first group, come with me, let’s go!” and everyone else was like, “Um… is it time, are we ready? Where’s your hat, let me get my stuff…” (typical society), while I was like, “See that lady?  We’re with her, let’s move!” and we were out the door – the biggest family, ready first.  So that’s kind of how it happened.  Which… just more of what I’m saying about people in general.

    They took us back in time, to the Native Americans.  Legend has it that an Indian male was chopping wood for his family, and stabbed his axe into a sugar maple, and the liquid came out and ran down the handle.  He collected it to drink, and found it had a slight flavor… so he took it home to his squaw, who used it in cooking the evening meal.  It boiled down and gave the food a sweet, delicious flavor, and so they took to collecting it… and the rest is history!  Here we are, in a wigwam, learning about how the Indians collected it, boiled it down, molded it into cakes or ate it as sugar.

      Then the Indians taught the settlers how to collect the sap, and they whittled the first spiles out of sumac trees, and used large kettles to boil down the liquid to syrup.  The kids got to try wearing a yoke, just like the pioneer children who would go thru the woods and spend the early spring days emptying the buckets and bringing them back to their mother to make into candies, sugars, and syrups.  It was NICE by that fire – it was only about 30 degrees, yesterday (but one tree was running, so we got to taste sap right out of the tree.).  Oh, and inside the wigwam, it was pretty nice, too, I must add… even though the fire was out by the time we got there.  The smoldering coals still kept it pretty nice, inside.  And of course I had kids in their snowsuits, so they were warm.

    Then we got to watch the young guys drain a load out of the ‘sap-sucker’ into the tanks at the Sugar House (see above), and we went inside the sugar house to see what happens, there.  It’s just a wooden mini-lodge, with just enough room around the stove/boiler pan for a group to fit in and watch.  The sap is run into the boiler pan and heated with the wood stove under it.  They boil it about six hours, and forty gallons of sap makes 1 gallon of syrup.  It seems like a lot of work for little yield, but it’s fun, and educational, and tastes really good by the time you’re done.  Brian had a lot of questions for the man running it… but if/when we do it at home, it’ll be on the stovetop in a kettle.


    We had a good time at the Sugarbush presentation.  ((grins))

    Brian, to my surprise, really was intrigued by the whole thing, and wanted to try it.  I mean, I had wanted to try it when we went years ago, but when it’s just me, and I don’t know much… but he REALLY wanted to try this, so I got a free brochure from their information center on Sugarbushing at home, and we drove ALL the way out to Hudsonville to Gemmons’ Hardware.  ((Gemmons is a special place – it has all old-fashioned toys, and things most normal stores don’t carry… and they had spiles.  A lot of them!  Plastic ones that didn’t look like they’d hold up, metal slugs that you could drill your own spiles out of, and packs of stainless steel ones… but only two packages left.  I bought both of them.  Hey, the plastic cheapy ones were $3.25 each, so $18 for four stainless ones seemed like a good deal (and otherwise, I’d have to order on-line and pay shipping, anyhow).  Silly manufacturer… they have pictures of alternating branches on the package!!

    At Blandford, they had little maple candies for $1 each, but that seemed pretty pricey… but at Gemmons they had homemade caramel sticks that were 5/$1, so we did those, instead.  They weren’t maple, but had maple flavoring, and that worked perfect for me!

    So this morning, we got up and (okay, I re-potted my banana trees and served green milk and mint oreos and Little Debbie Shamrock cookies for breakfast… hey, it’s Patty’s Day, after all!)… then the kids got eight emptied and washed out apple juice jugs while Brian got his hole saw blade and drill from the barn.  We drilled a hole in each bottle, and rinsed out the bottles (from plastic debris) and got everyone dressed up and went out to tap some trees on our property!  It was nippy – only 26 degrees out, so the sap wasn’t running yet, but everyone was excited.

    The problem is that you can’t tap a tree smaller than 10″ in diameter, and the ones that are ten inches or more?  The branches are WAY up there!  But we found eight of them, and each kid was in charge of two bottles.  Daddy drilled into the trees and used a mallet to set the spiles… and we hung our bottles right on the trees.

    So as of today, we’ve tapped a few trees around the play yard at home.  We actually have over an acre of virgin hardwood forest on our property in the back, so there is a CRAPload of trees we could tap, but we’re just giving it a try up where we can get to them easily, at this point.  It’s fun to try new things, and… well, the kids are pretty giddy about the whole thing.  They’ve been watching the temperature all morning, hoping for it to get over 32 degrees, today.

    So there’s our weekend adventure…
                        and we’re trying something new on the homestead!

  • Yehovah vs. Yeshua

    Yeah, since I’ve got everyone’s attention…

    I saw a video this morning, filmed at the Kotel (Wailing Wall in Jerusalem), and it was of a Rabbi being questioned by a Christian pastor about why he won’t believe in Jesus.  I was piqued by the idea of this video… mostly because I believe both views (Christianity/Judaism) on the subject matter are wrong.

    What do I mean?  Let’s do a quick recap:  Christians have Messiah’ death on the cross that they use to negate the need to keep Torah’s commandments.  So they have faith/trust without obedience/works.  And at the same time, you have Jews who have Torah’s commandments and don’t believe the man Jee-zus was any greater a son of God than the rest of the sons of God.  They have the scriptures which say to obey for ALL generations, and believe that will result in salvation.  So they have obedience/works without faith/trust. 

    BOTH are wrong. 

    Scripture says that ‘faith without works is dead’ – so christianity is a massive lie, in that it says you don’t have to keep God’s commandments, anymore.  Didn’t Messiah Himself say ‘if you love Me, keep My commandments’?  Since He said that BEFORE the NT was written, what commandments do christians think He was talking about, if He and God were One?  Yet christians only seem to recognize 10 of the 613 Old Testament commandments as even BEING commandments, for pity’s sake, and they don’t even see them as needful, because they have the free ticket of Jee-zus’ blood.

    And on the flip side, the Jews reject Messiah because they cannot reconcile a man as being the physical embodiment of Yehovah.  Well… as an abstract in the future, yes, but Yeshua bar Josef didn’t do things the way they wanted them to, and so they ruled Him out.  The prophecies were for humility/lowliness AND triumph/leadership, and they wanted it all in one big, immediate package together… not with two separate visits – the first being ‘undercover’/spiritual in fulfillment, and the second being obvious/physical in fulfillment.  Too many prophecies in the OT to even start to address that in one blog.

    Regardless, you have two extremes, both of them hopelessly short of Truth.  Both of them leading to destruction/eternal death, because BOTH of them reject a side of the salvation coin.  It’s Trust AND obedience.  It’s Faith AND Works. 

    And knowing that, here’s the video… watch knowing that both men are wrong:

    Above, I wrote that it’s Trust AND obedience, Faith AND Works.  But there’s something else, too:  For the rabbi, it’s Ha’Shem.  For the Christian, it’s Jee-zus.  Yehovah vs. Yeshua… when the reality is that it’s Yehovah AND Yeshua.

    And you know what?  Something really hit me, this morning.  It’s TRUE.  When I was a christian (for 30 years of my life!), it was all about Jee-zus.  God was an abstract, far off, unable to relate to men… only Jee-zus understands what a person goes thru.  ((That’s a lie.  We’re made in Yehovah’s image – time and again scripture shows Yehovah burning with anger, grieved by our behavior, betrayed or pleased.  But christianity says only Jee-zus feels your pain.))   You prayed to Jee-zus.  You cast out demons in the name of Jee-zus.  What a friend I have in Jee-zus.  Jee-zus is the rock of my salvation.  (<– did you know that verse was written by David to Yehovah?)

    The rabbi has a point.  The King of the Universe has taken second Place to the prince, just like in the rabbi’s story.  And I guess I didn’t really think about it until today, because I always (abstractly) have known that ‘I and the Father are One’… but now that I think about it, since coming out of churchianity?  I pray to Yehovah Elohim, my Father ABBA, the creator of the universe.  And when I was a christian, I rarely did that – my friend was Jee-zus.  I… don’t even know when and where that change came, to be honest.  But somewhere along this transition in my faith, I have restored the Sovereign to His throne.

    Now, of course the rabbi was wrong in many of his statements.  For example, he says Malachi prophecies Elijah bringing peace, and says that Yeshua can’t be Messiah because he said He did not come to bring peace but a sword.  ((I love that… because churchianity doesn’t teach a sword-bearing Yeshua, they teach a ‘prince of peace’ and ‘lamb of god’.  They emasculate Messiah to make Him palatable to the ‘seeker sensitive’.))  Regardless, Malachi’s prophecy isn’t about Messiah, it’s about a coming Elijah… and if John the Baptist was the ‘second Elijah’ (Luke 1:17), it would’ve been him, not Yeshua, that the prophecy talked of (unless it’s the future coming ‘third’ Elijah – Rev 11:3)

    I watched the video with a very objective view of both sides… which might not have been possible ten years ago… but I see Christianity being owned by Judaism, because Judaism is actually closer to the Truth these days that Christianity is.  The fact of the matter is that Yehovah IS a jealous god, and to be passed over for this Romanized version of His Son, who is stripped of His Judaism and Hebrew characteristics, with Torah yanked from the picture and only the blood (Christians reject His water and only claim half of the atonement)… for Yehovah to be replaced with this anglo-prince who’s a poorly drawn, cartoon rendition of who Yeshua really was?  He has got to be BURNING with anger.

    I… this… it just really was a wake-up call, a revelation to me this morning.  That somewhere along the line, I have gone from being Jesus-centric to adding the Father back into the equation.  I hadn’t even realized it.  It’s like in coming away from the one extreme, I found balance between Savior and Creator.  Well… actually, I have to admit that I’m more Creator-centric, with Him at the head of all things in my life.  It happened almost naturally.  It doesn’t mean I’ve rejected Christ – but I have Messiah Yeshua as my brother (Luke 8:21)… with Him as the Firstfruits/firstborn of those who will rise in Yehovah (1 Cor 15:20), paving the way with His sacrifice of water and blood for me. (John 19:34)  Not that He *isn’t* God, He’s a different facet, that’s all.

    I hadn’t seen this, before this morning.  And I can’t thank Adonai enough for this… it’s like being given a star of my paper, this morning in school.  A little wink from my teacher, showing me something I had learned that I didn’t even realize I had!

  • About the New Pope Elect

    Well, in case you haven’t heard the news, we’ve got us a new Pope.  Pope Frank.  I made some rather coarse jokes about that (in reference to altar boys and the homosexual scandals) yesterday in my comments… you get the gist of them from this, and we’ll leave it at that.  I also teased a girlfriend about how the two living popes you have to tithe to support are now Frank & Bens.  Get it?  Hahahahahaaaaaa… But frankly, it ain’t over ’til the inauguration, so we shall see what happens. 

     BUT FOR THE RECORD: 
    http://www.cbsnews.com/8…266th-leader-roman-catholic-church/

    The world’s 1.2 billion Catholics have a new leader. His name is Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, but he will be known henceforth as Pope Francis. Bergoglio, the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires and a member of the largest Catholic order, the Jesuits, is the first pope from the new world. Born in Argentina to parents of Italian descent, he represents a bridge between the Church’s European roots and its future, which lies, according to many, in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Bergoglio’s chosen name, Francis, is a nod to the patron saint of Italy, Saint Francis of Assisi.

    Having said, I have been looking for a correlation to the prophecy of ‘Peter the Roman’.  And at first, I didn’t see anything.  Then I asked my friends for some input, and got a little feedback, and it’s actually looking like this might be our man.  Again – until the 19th he’s just pope-elect (I called him half-pope to my kids last night to simplify the concept… and besides, it sounds more fun).  But it ain’t over until the fat nun sings.

    However, in the meantime, here are a few fun things that I’ve read about this new dude:

    • Frank-firster’s last words of his first sentence as Pope were ‘fine del mondo‘,  means ‘end of the world’.  Ironic, that.

    • He seems to have a lot of 13s associated with him.  He was born on Dec 17th 1936 1+9=10-3=7+6=13.  He is 76yrs old 7+6=13.   He entered the Society of Jesus on March 11th 1958 – 1+9=10-5=5+8=13.  He was ordained into priesthood Dec 13th.  He is was ordained as a pope 3/13/2013.  He is the 265th pope 2+6+5=13 He seems to have a lot of 13′s to his person. Also the he came out of the curtain at 9:13.
    • His name, Bergoglio, is interesing.  “Berg” means “mountain” in old english, dutch, norse, icelandic, Proto-Germanic, and Indo-European… all Euro/Roman countries.  “Oglio” is a river in Italy, pointing us to Rome.  So we have the new Pope’s name meaning rock-rome.  Peter means ‘rock’.  So some are saying his last name is Peter/Roman.
    • Others are saying he’s not going to be Peter the Roman at all… because of the eerie similarities to John Paul I (who was pope for a mere 33 days).  The similarities?  Frank is the first pope to wear the real cross since John Paul I.  He’s also the first to choose a name that is a ‘first’ since John Paul I.  So based on these things, there are people who think his days are numbered at a mere handful.  We shall see.
    • My friend (Garfette) pointed out that since both of his parents are Italian and merely immigrated to Argentina, that he is, indeed, of 100% Roman blood.  I agree with her wholeheartedly – and this might be part of WHY the prophecy calls him Peter the ROMAN… to highlight the fact that  – despite what everyone says about him being from the ‘new world’ or whatever – this man is a Roman.
    • Another friend (Ammathia) suggested that he chose the name Francis based on Saint Francis: Francesco di Pietro (Peter) di Bernardine.  It’s a weak possibility, but it *is* there, and I can’t refute that.  I just wonder if it would be that… embedded.  For lack of a better word.

    • uPDaTe:  At a Jewish site, I read: “And then we have his last name Ber-Gog-lio…  the prefix of Gog in the last name is Bear, and that the suffix is Leo the Lion.  So then I told her as follows.  David slew a bear and a lion to protect his sheep.  And that we should be calm about this.
    • uPDaTe:  From the same site’s comments: 
      Jorge = George = GOG
      Bergoglio or Bar-Goglio = Son of Gog = MAGOG

    But FRANKly (hahaha…) the ideas thrown out there were pretty fun and interesting to read.  And I thought you might like to see what people are saying.

  • Rosh Chodesh Nisan

    Yesterday was Rosh Chodesh Nisan.  What is that?  ‘Rosh Chodesh’ is the first day of the month, and ‘Nisan’ is the month.  So because of the New moon on the 11th, the twelfth of March was the 1% moon, or new moon.  Hebrew months always start on the new moon… so March 12 was Rosh Chodesh Nisan.  There’s your Hebrew lesson for the day.  ((wink!))  Hey – it’s fun to learn something new, right?

    Having said, Rosh Chodesh Nisan is slightly more significant than other ‘first day of the month’s.  Why?  Because Rosh Chodesh Nisan is exactly in the middle of the Hebrew year.  It’s the middle day, according to many teachers… or so I’ve read.

    And yesterday was even MORE special.  Why?  Because we’re at an extremely important point in history.  The last pope has resigned.  The trump judgments are about to begin.  We’re on the cusp of the coming wrath.  The time is upon us.  And don’t think for a second that Yehovah isn’t a god of order/patterns.  He has set up certain days to be special, and things happen on those specific days according to His plan.

    Nisan is full of special days.  March 25th (at sunset) begins Pesach/Passover.  The following day is Unleavened Bread, followed by Firstfruits.  For a week, all leavening must be removed from the home and is not eaten.  The Counting of the Omer is about to begin.  We will celebrate the Seder with Elijah’s cup, anticipating his arrival.  LOTS of very important things are on the horizon, and as for me and my house?  We’re pretty geeked.  Already watching the videos by Aish – they have two cute ones I’ll link to, later.

    But as for Rosh Chodesh Nisan?  It did not pass insignificantly:

    CARDINALS BEGIN ELECTION PROCESS
    http://abcnews.go.com/…cardinal-dolan-predicts-pope-thursday-vote…101

    March 12 – Black smoke poured out of the chimney above the Sistine Chapel today, signalling that the first vote for a new pope did not succeed in settling on a new pontiff.  Few expected the first vote to determine the next pope and the black smoke was not a surprise. The next vote by the Catholic cardinals is expected to be held on Wednesday.

    The cardinals retreated to the Sistine Chapel in a choreographed procession with the 115 cardinals eligible to vote marching in two by two while singing prayers. …The cardinals read the secrecy oath in unison, and then came forward to individually to put their hands on the Gospels and repeat an oath of secrecy… 

    New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan predicted a new pontiff by Thursday. “My guess is that we’d have a new Successor of St. Peter by Thursday evening, with a hoped-for inaugural Mass on March 19…”  The diocese spokesman confirmed the letter to ABC News.

      We are at a very important junction.  What happens next is prophetic, will effect every nation, ever religion, every people group.  It will make history.  This is the last prediction before the end – Peter the Roman, who will see his flock thru tribulation.  And are you surprised that this very important event would begin on Rosh Chodesh Nisan?  Because I’m not.  I’m just smiling.  Because Rosh Chodesh means nothing to the Catholics.  They don’t factor it in… but as for me and my Lord?  Oh, it’s very poignant timing!!

  • Guest Post (Referral)

    Yeah, don’t laugh, k?  I’m busy, this morning.  I have stuff.  Everywhere.  From last week’s printing extravaganza, and it has to be organized and/or put away, and some of it finished up.  And I don’t have TIME for everything, you know!  And I’m starting to get buggy about getting photo stuff done, so if I can get on top of the paper clutter and school projects, I might get to picture editing tomorrow… which would be SO kewl, since I haven’t done it since September, so I’m WAYYYY behind, again!

    So… because I’m doing stuff elsewhere, I’m redirecting my readership to something a friend shared with me yesterday on Facebook.  It’s called “The Coolest Experience I had as an Apple Store Employee”.  (LINK).  I followed the link, and the story really made my day.

    …And I have to tell you, I loved this, because my kids and I use Sign Language a LOT in public.  Mostly because I don’t like having to raise my voice when we’re out and about – it’s easier when I need a kid and I’m at the fast food counter and they’re in a booth just to sign the name of the child I want and ‘come help me’, and it happens without a word.  At a yard sale, I’ll hop out, and if I see a Magic Tree House book, I can sign to the car “Lydia, need Tree House Book 24?” and she can sign yes or no back, without me having to run back and ask (True story.).  Or if we’re at Great Wolf Lodge and Brian’s got the bigger kids on the slides and I’m with the littles on the lazy river, I can sign to him ‘Aaron potty’ as he comes out the tube and makes eye contact with me.  It’s SO nice.  When we went to Quaker Steak & Lube the other night, and that joint has something like THIRTEEN televisions, all blaring hockey, basketball, races, etc… we couldn’t hear ourselves across the table.  So we just switched to signing.  Makes it SO much easier with a long table seating seven people!

    Anyhow, this story made me smile.  It’s about a guy helping a classroom full of children get laptops… a classroom full of children who spoke Sign Language… and the fun little twist at the end, when he goes on his lunch break.  You’ll like it – it’s worth five minutes of your time.  ((grins))