Firstfruits!

Firstfruits is the third of seven feasts the Lord... it was when they gave the Lord the first of the harvest.  This is terribly poignant - Because Yeshua Ha'Masiach is the first of the dead that was resurrected.  And that resurrection is a fulfillment of this prophecy. 

And if we believe God, then His Son was raised on FirstFruits. 

For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised, And if Christ be not raised, then your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.  then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished... But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His Coming.  Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom of God...   - 1 Corinthians 15:16-18, 20-24

Paul wrote this in the New Testament to confirm that Yeshua indeed fulfilled the feast instituted thousands of years before His birth.  Is that not incredible?  What's more incredible is that there is a promise tacked on the end - while Christ fulfilled it... it was only as the first of those yet to come.  There will be more resurrected!  Christ the Firstfruits is come and risen!!

Now something that need addressing is the fact that some people believe that because Christ resurrected on Firstfruits, we will, too.  I don't know.  But even so, Messiah, come!

When is Firstfruits?  The wording in scripture is... funky.  It says it's the day after Sabbath, according to Lev 23.  So in case you wondered, that DOESN'T mean that Firstfruits was Easter Sunday - that's like SIX DAYS from Pesach, and Messiah rose in three days, right?  So in case you were wondering, here's the skinny: Pesach is a Sabbath, and Unleavened Bread is a Sabbath... they're feastly Sabbaths, so they count.  Messiah arose on Firstfruits, and that's the third day... so if Pesach is the first day, and Unleavened is the second (and that's the Sabbath right before Firstfruits), then Firstfruits would be the third day.  So... okay.  I got it.  Finally!!

Counting the Omer

"And you shall count for yourselves from the morrow of the Shabbat, from the day on which you bring the Omer offering, seven complete weeks they shall be; until the morrow of the seventh week, you shall count fifty days... And you shall proclaim that very day a holy festival."   Leviticus 23:15-21

There are fifty days between Pesach (Passover) and Shavuoth (Pentecost).  In the Bible, we are commanded to count every single one of these days... and I gave the scripture above, just for you.  ((wink!))  Anyhow, I (being raised a christchun) have never done this.  Like most christchuns, I wasn't taught that we were supposed to keep His commandments if we claimed to love Him.  ((Don't get me started.))  So I had NO idea there was even such a thing as a counting of the Omer.  Thank you, good  ol' Sunday School.  They had me waving palm fronds like the fickle unbelieving Jerusalem Jews for 'Easter' when I was a kid, but to celebrate in obedience?  Hell, no!  So imagine my surprise when I grew up and claimed the scriptures for myself... and found out that there's this really nifty little countdown that we're supposed to (as Jews) participate in.  ((And yes, I said I'm a Jew.  See Romans 2:28-29.))  And the nifty little countdown sure as HELL ain't Lent.

...Here's what I found out (paraphrased and shortened Anna-style from multiple sites):  The counting of the Omer, stems from the biblical commandment to set aside one sheaf of barley on each of forty-nine days between the two largest spring festivals, and then to offer the barley as a sacrifice on Shavuot/Pentecost.  The Omer is the time between Pesach/Passover and Shavuot/Pentecost.  This was the time from Israel's exodus from Egypt to their arrival at the foot of Mount Sinai... and what that symbolizes for us.... the journey from bondage to freedom.  

This 49-day period is meant to spiritually prepare and refine ourselves. When the Jewish people were in Egypt for 400 years, they had assimilated many of the immoral ways of the Egyptians. The Jews had sunk to an unprecedented level of spiritual defilement.  God stepped in and redeemed His chosen people, and they underwent a spiritual rebirth and quickly ascended to the holiest collective state they had ever reached. They were so holy, in fact, that they were compared to angels when they stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah.  From the lowest lows to the highest heights in just seven weeks!

Every year, we retrace this journey by counting the Omer.  Beginning on the second night of Pesach/Passover, we count the days and weeks. "Today is one day to the Omer," we proclaim on the first night of the count. "Today is two days to the Omer," "Today is seven days, which are one week to the Omer", "Today is twenty-six days, which are three weeks and five days day to the Omer," and so on, until: "Today is forty-nine days, which are seven weeks to the Omer." The fiftieth day is Shavuot/Pentecost.

Chabad.org has a page with daily readings for the Counting of the Omer.  It tells you what the short blessing is to recite, and then has a passage to be read that's a bit longer.  I may just read them this year for the sake of doing it, and see what I learn from it and how it might bless me.  I know it won't mean a whole lotta anything to the kids, but I want to LEARN, and learning comes by experience in many situations... so for the sake of experiencing it, that's my plan.

But how to count in the Omer?

I saw this chart at Davka.org that was really kewl, and decided that this was the way I wanted to do it.   Here's the original color-crayon chart at that site, that I 'green-lighted' over.  ((<<<----- ))

The basic concept here is that you start on the red space at the top right of the chart and wind your way down to the purple, and the colors going from right to left diagonally across the chart are the 7 colors of the rainbow.  Everything else is a blend thereof.  And every day you put a barley corn on a space.

But I couldn't really USE this, because it's so shoddily done, and while she/he called for other people to 'make it better' for her with their computer knowledge, every link (and there are like five of them) that people provided to 'their' version is either defunct or not workable.  So you know me...  I went to Word ((I do e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. in Word)) and tried to take the concept and make it better.

So here's what I did...  ain't it purty?  Wha, I do good work!  Not sure I got the colors right (hey, look what I was working off!)... but it was my best shot at it.  And it only took HALF my bloomin' life.  ((kidding!))  Ah, but I luvvv my work!  Anyhow, for the last (five?) years, I've told you to click it and print, but THIS YEAR there's a better option.  I've uploaded the file to K&S, and all you have to do it click here for an original copy of it:

Omer Printable

The colors of the .doc version are slightly different from the one shown here - if you prefer this more brighter version, you can still click the picture, click the image to enlarge, and use that.  Both options are available... and options are always nice!

Anyhow, here's how it works:  This whole thang is considered a mitzvah, so the count, which takes place each night, is preceded by a blessing.  ((See the Chabad link above.))  However, we may only recite the blessing if we have not missed a single night of counting. If we have omitted the counting even one night during that stretch, we may no longer recite the blessing, but instead must listen as our friend says the blessing and then do the counting.  I plan to have each member of our family glue a barley corn to the chart (was afraid I wouldn't be able to find barley corns and thought I might have to substitute popcorn, but it's golden).  That'll be five per square, but they're small, so they'll fit. 

But there you have it.  The meaning behind, process of, and Anna-cized version of the Counting of the Omer.  Hope that helps!!

Feast of Unleavened Bread

Today begins the Feast of Unleavened Bread!

In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD's passover.  And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.  Leviticus 23:5-6

So the next question would be 'what is the feast of unleavened bread for?'

And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt: therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as an ordinance for ever. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, and so until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; for if any one eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land." (Exodus 12:17-19)

What relevance do the Days of Unleavened Bread have to Christ-Followers? The Feast of Unleavened bread memorialized Israel's deliverance from a life of slavery under Pharaoh after the slaying of the Passover lamb, but it also now represents the Christian's deliverance from a life of sin under Satan after the slaying of Jesus Christ, the "Lamb of God."

"Cleanse out the old leaven (sin) that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened (sinless). For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Corinthians 5:7-8 RSV)

Those are NT words from Paul - who obviously held that the feast observance was to be kept even after Christ's death, to remember that it was a fulfillment of God's feast that Christ delivered us from our sins.  I also find it interesting that in Acts 20:6, Luke records the NT church observing the feast of unleavened bread, as well.  Key to that is the fact that Luke was the only writer in the Bible who wasn't a Jew.  And he was observing it, too.  Precedence was set... what happened, church?

.....more good information on it located here....

I aslo thought that maybe some of you might like to do the lapbooks that I put together (free) here on the site.  But since the links are always easy for you to find, and for the sake of convenience, here they are, again:

Pesach Preparations

PReFaCe:  A friend on FB linked me to Hebrew4Christians, where they told here there are 15 steps of the passover because Passover is on the 15th of the month, and this number and that number adds up to 15... and I directed them - and her - to Leviticus 23:5... which says Passover is the 14th day of the month, hello.  H4C deleted my comment.  Wouldn't want Truth to get out.  As for my friend, the comment under mine was about a Seder they were going to on 11 Nissan.  I mourn.  Because no matter how much Truth I try to give people, the reject it for lies, and choose their way over His.  Even my friends.  I... don't know what else I can say to you.  Except that I have done my best.  Your choice is ultimately yours.  And that I *BEG* you to please, please check scripture before even believing 'Hebrews4Christians'... because if it doesn't match the Bible, I don't care WHAT it is, it's not true.  (/PReFaCe)

Well, Thursday (10 Nissan, Gen 12:3) we brought home our lamb,
       ...and Friday/Saturday we saw in the last Shabbat before the redemption feast...
              ...and here we are, on Sunday - embarking on our leaven hunt! 

I love this day, and hate it at the same time.  Love it, because it's fun to go thru and take all of the bread, crackers, cookies and pastries out of the house.  Hate it because one must get REALLY creative when they have to go a week with no leaven.  Meals get interesting.  But even that is a kind of an adventure!

And we should probably re-touch on the topic of how legalistic to be about this.  It says 'do not eat any leaven' in Leviticus 23:6.  In Exodus 12: 18-19 it says not only will you not eat it, but you will not have it in your home.  So we remove the leaven from our home (where we live) and make sure not to eat any leavening during the 7 days of Pesach... but I don't go crazy and burn all the bread, freak out and vacuum behind the fridge in case there's a crumb somewhere.  It's obedience, not legalism.  At my house, everything gets taken out to the camper for a week... or put downstairs in the basement.  Because we don't live in either of those places - they're not the 'home'.  That's just how it works for us.

I found a free printable placemat for the kids to color for our feast (HERE), and a seder clock, for them to follow along with when we have our feast (HERE).  I love both of them, and just had to share with you.  Something new for this year!

I won't be posting tomorrow... but if you'd like to read previous Pesach posts:

I have to tell you... my friend V believes that we'll be raptured during the spring feasts.  I can see some of the reason she would think so - Yehovah Elohim delivered Israel out of Egypt/the world on this day and Yeshua ben Yosef delivered mankind from their sins on this day... and so it would make sense that Yeshua ben David would deliver mankind from the Tribulation to come on this day.  I see that, and would NOT protest if it were true.  In fact, I think the timing is perfect - there are a lot of big changes going on, right now.  The Pope, Israel's gov't, etc... why not this, too?  I'm all for it.

But in the meantime, I prepare for the feast.  It's a time of prayer and putting my perspective in the right place, and so I wish you and yours the best for Pesach... and I'm gonna scoot along and be with my family.

Inserting a little Humor

I'm a 'Words of Affirmation' kinda gal, in case you've ever gotten into the 'Five Love Languages' thing.  And my husband?  NOT a man of many words.  So I got this idea off Pinterest last summer, to put a frame and dry-erase marker on the microwave, so he could leave me little 'morsels' of endearment as he went to work (since I crave them).  But... um, the kids got involved, and... well... look how it's going:

Mind boggling, some days.  But I think that about sums it up, around here.  LoL!!

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.

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!!