ARGH.....
I put in an order today for a years' worth of grain from Wheat Montana....Prairie Gold, Bronze Chief, 7 grain, soft white, oats.....and tonight? The Whisper Mill exploded! Jamin turned it on and the motor has seized up - it was blowing smoke out the top of it.....I bought it used....not even sure where you would take something like this to get it repaired.
I really NEED a mill.....I mean I don't buy any flour, baking mixes, pancake mixes...now what???? Where do I look for another one? Should I buy new with a warranty or take a chance on another used one? This one lasted 7 years....and was purchased at over 50% off.....
Anyone looked lately? Where are the best deals? I don't WANT to buy a new one but I honestly NEED one.....
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Oy Vey
I was talking to Mom last week and she told me that all Aspie children have something they excell at. (She works in the public schools as an aide to autistic children.) She asked me what Zander excelled in. I had to stop and think. I finally told her computers and electronic things.....and he takes EVERYTHING apart - sometimes he puts it back together. Anyway - we have to carefully watch how much electronic interaction he has - or he doesn't interact with the humans in his life.
Today I sat down at the computer and the whole desktop was changed. WHAT? A couple of days ago Arielle had figured out the cursor thing and begun changing cursors....but.....I said, "OK - Arielle did you change the background on here?" She insisted she hadn't. Zander walked in and said, "Oh, I did that." I didn't believe him.
He proceeded to say "Watch" and showed me "you go to control panel (how does he KNOW that?), you click this and this and this" BINGO he changed the desktop background. This terrifies me. This also tells me that my answer we right, Mom. Zander loves computers.
I was talking to Mom last week and she told me that all Aspie children have something they excell at. (She works in the public schools as an aide to autistic children.) She asked me what Zander excelled in. I had to stop and think. I finally told her computers and electronic things.....and he takes EVERYTHING apart - sometimes he puts it back together. Anyway - we have to carefully watch how much electronic interaction he has - or he doesn't interact with the humans in his life.
Today I sat down at the computer and the whole desktop was changed. WHAT? A couple of days ago Arielle had figured out the cursor thing and begun changing cursors....but.....I said, "OK - Arielle did you change the background on here?" She insisted she hadn't. Zander walked in and said, "Oh, I did that." I didn't believe him.
He proceeded to say "Watch" and showed me "you go to control panel (how does he KNOW that?), you click this and this and this" BINGO he changed the desktop background. This terrifies me. This also tells me that my answer we right, Mom. Zander loves computers.
Homeschool Funny
Some of us are simply NOT natural at this lap book thing. I decided to make an "accordian book" so that we can put whatever we want in these lap books.
For the tree symbol I wanted to do a shape book. I figured out how to make a tree out of three triangles and open them up to write inside....and I kept cutting them so the fold was wrong...then the kids wanted ONE tree and not three triangles to make a tree.....so....a huge pile of paper later and I have figured out how to make one loan shap book.....maybe it would be cheaper to buy a kit all ready to go. ::snort:: The children were thrilled to use glitter on their booklets.....of course that led to Zander making some very creative art work indeed. This all reminds me why we've been a "crayon/glue free" homeschool for years and years. LOL 
CHRISTMAS TREES
An English Missionary, later known as St. Boniface, was the first person we know to have used the pine tree as a Christian symbol. He used it to illustrate the Trinity. One day he came upon some pagans worshipping an OAK tree and reacted in anger. He cut down the tree and legend has it that a pine tree grew from the stump of the oak. {I'm not sure that we believe the legend, but the thoughts from this are that from death would come new EVERLASTING life}.
For many Christians the Christmas tree has become a symbol of the Trinity, everlasting life and Christ's purpose on earth. The tree points to God - as we should point others to God. The tree is evergreen as the life Christ gives us is EVERLASTING. The branches on the tree reach out as Jesus reached out to others. Christ died on a tree. Remembering the purpose for which the babe in the manger was given only deepens our celebration of the incredible gift in our lives that He is.
In our family we had the great "tree topper" debate for years. I wanted an angel. Mike wanted a star. Years ago I began to listen as Mike prayed at ceremonies about the "babe born in the shadow of a cross". This struck a chord in me. For years now, we've placed a crown of thorns at the top of our tree. This reminds us that while we celebrate His birth, He came with a purpose - and Praise God He fulfilled that purpose.
Here are Arielle and Nolan's thoughts on Christmas Trees: (this may serve as an illustration of how you can teach the same thing to different ages and they'll glean what is age appropriate LOL)
The Christmas Tree - Nolan
Winifred (St Boniface) was an English
missionary. He said the top is Dad,
the bottom son and the other side is
the Holy Spirit.
The tree points to heaven.
The branches of the tree stick out
Like Jesus’ arms did when he
was on the cross.
We put a crown of thorns on top
of our tree, because that is the crown
that Jesus wore when he was
crucified.
Winifred (St Boniface) was an English
missionary. He said the top is Dad,
the bottom son and the other side is
the Holy Spirit.
The tree points to heaven.
The branches of the tree stick out
Like Jesus’ arms did when he
was on the cross.
We put a crown of thorns on top
of our tree, because that is the crown
that Jesus wore when he was
crucified.
~*~*~*
The Christmas Tree - Arielle
Winifred (St Boniface) was an English
missionary. He used the pine tree
to show the trinity – one tree,
three corners. One God – Father,
Son and Spirit at the points.
The top of the tree points to
Heaven and God.
The branches reach out to other
like Jesus does.
Jesus died on a tree – so we can
remember that He came to die
for us.
Winifred (St Boniface) was an English
missionary. He used the pine tree
to show the trinity – one tree,
three corners. One God – Father,
Son and Spirit at the points.
The top of the tree points to
Heaven and God.
The branches reach out to other
like Jesus does.
Jesus died on a tree – so we can
remember that He came to die
for us.
Booklets we've made so far
Lights on a Tree
I was going to write my OWN narrative about this - but the children did a good job. We are working on a lap book of Christmas symbols. Nolan and Arielle will each do their own. This should give them a bit more ownership of the project...it also allows Arielle to spruce her's up a bit. I'm hoping these will be books the children enjoy year after year....so they need their own. I decided they could dictate their thoughts to me and I would type them....
So - here are the thoughts on Christmas tree lights....but I want to write my own. ::snort::
Lights on a Tree - Nolan (7)
Martin Luther was walking back home.
He looked up and saw the stars.
They looked like they were dancing.
They made him worship God.
He cut a tree and went home. He
set it up in his house. He put candles
on it. The candles twinkled and
danced. His family worshipped
God too.
Lights on a Tree - Arielle (9)
Martin Luther was walking home one December night.
He looked up into sky and the stars made him worship
God for the beauty of His creation.
Then he walked under a pine tree and the stars seemed
to twinkle on the branches. He was amazed by God’s
creation.
He cut down a small pine tree. He took it inside
his house and called his family. He wanted them
to be able to see what he saw. They didn’t really
get it, so he took all the candles in the house and
put them on the tree.
When I look at Christmas tree lights it reminds me
of God’s beautiful creation and sometimes causes
me to worship too.
I was going to write my OWN narrative about this - but the children did a good job. We are working on a lap book of Christmas symbols. Nolan and Arielle will each do their own. This should give them a bit more ownership of the project...it also allows Arielle to spruce her's up a bit. I'm hoping these will be books the children enjoy year after year....so they need their own. I decided they could dictate their thoughts to me and I would type them....
So - here are the thoughts on Christmas tree lights....but I want to write my own. ::snort::
Lights on a Tree - Nolan (7)
Martin Luther was walking back home.
He looked up and saw the stars.
They looked like they were dancing.
They made him worship God.
He cut a tree and went home. He
set it up in his house. He put candles
on it. The candles twinkled and
danced. His family worshipped
God too.
Lights on a Tree - Arielle (9)
Martin Luther was walking home one December night.
He looked up into sky and the stars made him worship
God for the beauty of His creation.
Then he walked under a pine tree and the stars seemed
to twinkle on the branches. He was amazed by God’s
creation.
He cut down a small pine tree. He took it inside
his house and called his family. He wanted them
to be able to see what he saw. They didn’t really
get it, so he took all the candles in the house and
put them on the tree.
When I look at Christmas tree lights it reminds me
of God’s beautiful creation and sometimes causes
me to worship too.
CHRISTMAS - to celebrate or not?
How's this for a hot topic? I come from a long line of "mega Christmas celebrators" (don't I mom?). I realize that some Christians have chosen not to celebrate Christmas. That is their conviction and I honor that conviction. Our family has gone back and forth and settled on a Christmas celebration that we believe is God-honoring and pleasing. I believe the key is to pray about this, as you pray about anything else in your life, and then follow His leading. In our home we realized that we were in danger of loosing the joy of Christmas - the meaning and reason of Christmas. We were a busy Pastor's family (and you can't imagine the busy ness of this time of year), we had lots of children and we were giving lots and lots of gifts....but somewhere we were loosing the meaning. We could not SKIP Christmas....because 1. it is in our HEARTS to celebrate Christ and 2. as pastors/chaplains that is impractical. We made drastic changes. We cut our giving budget to $50 per child. We explained that we were celebrating JESUS and not the child - on their birthday we spend a bit more because then we are celebrating them on that day! (Some of you know that a couple of my children are getting more than a $50 gift this year - but that is their entire Christmas and birthday for the year. LOL - They'll be fine with it). We began to celebrate ADVENT (new to me). We began to search for all the ways we could use the season as object lessons for our children and to point them to Christ.
A few random thoughts:
1. We CELEBRATE CHRIST around here year round.....and I must say I enjoy that the rest of the world seems to get on board for these brief four weeks.
2. American Christmas' have gotten WAY overly commercialized to the point that in many homes Christ is totally lost (regardless of what we say).
3. Our Christmas celebrations should be God-pleasing and in keeping with His character. It is not God's will for us to go into debt, be consumed with greed or lust, be grumpy because we can't have what someone else has... It IS God's will for us to be thankful with what we have - be that a little or a lot. It is also His will that we be content!
4. When God wanted His people to remember something he told them to CELEBRATE - have a FEAST, PARTY....and I believe we can do the same today in a God-honoring way.
5. We must be ON GUARD against "over consumption" or over something during this time of the year.
6. I'm often asked about the whole pagan question....and really a complete answer is far more in-depth than I will attempt at this point. One simple observation...yes....as the church spread it often incorporated practices of the "pagan cultures" around it into the church celebrations....HOWEVER.....I think we miss that the church WAS practicing Christmas in order to incorporate a pagan practice. In other words, celebrating Christ is not the issue. It is possible to throw out the pagan practices and get back to a more "traditional" Christmas.
7. I realize others have other convictions and as I said earlier I HONOR those convictions - I ask only that they honor my convictions as well. In real life, I have four friends who do not celebrate Christmas. I do not try to convince them they should celebrate my way. They should follow where God leads THEM. Really they DO celebrate Christ - just not the American Christmas version....I choose to celebrate Christ year round AND through the American Christmas traditions.
8. Several have told me lately, when discussing what I do at Christmas, that they wish I'd share more....now I think what I do is pretty basic....but since I do keep hearing this.... I did decide to say a few things now. I plan to go ahead and share now and again what we do and why we do it as we go about our Christmas. Some of the things I share are things I gleaned over the years from online friends at SHS, or ideas shared by local friends, and some are ideas that God simply implanted in our hearts. Now - I don't consider anything we do to be ESSENTIAL to anyone else. I don't consider anything I share to be WOW - NEW - but hey....we are all looking for ways to make spiritual truths and Christ real to our children and Christmas is FULL of opportunities....if God can use a pumpkin in a child's life...think what he can do with something pretty that smells nice....
How's this for a hot topic? I come from a long line of "mega Christmas celebrators" (don't I mom?). I realize that some Christians have chosen not to celebrate Christmas. That is their conviction and I honor that conviction. Our family has gone back and forth and settled on a Christmas celebration that we believe is God-honoring and pleasing. I believe the key is to pray about this, as you pray about anything else in your life, and then follow His leading. In our home we realized that we were in danger of loosing the joy of Christmas - the meaning and reason of Christmas. We were a busy Pastor's family (and you can't imagine the busy ness of this time of year), we had lots of children and we were giving lots and lots of gifts....but somewhere we were loosing the meaning. We could not SKIP Christmas....because 1. it is in our HEARTS to celebrate Christ and 2. as pastors/chaplains that is impractical. We made drastic changes. We cut our giving budget to $50 per child. We explained that we were celebrating JESUS and not the child - on their birthday we spend a bit more because then we are celebrating them on that day! (Some of you know that a couple of my children are getting more than a $50 gift this year - but that is their entire Christmas and birthday for the year. LOL - They'll be fine with it). We began to celebrate ADVENT (new to me). We began to search for all the ways we could use the season as object lessons for our children and to point them to Christ.
A few random thoughts:
1. We CELEBRATE CHRIST around here year round.....and I must say I enjoy that the rest of the world seems to get on board for these brief four weeks.
2. American Christmas' have gotten WAY overly commercialized to the point that in many homes Christ is totally lost (regardless of what we say).
3. Our Christmas celebrations should be God-pleasing and in keeping with His character. It is not God's will for us to go into debt, be consumed with greed or lust, be grumpy because we can't have what someone else has... It IS God's will for us to be thankful with what we have - be that a little or a lot. It is also His will that we be content!
4. When God wanted His people to remember something he told them to CELEBRATE - have a FEAST, PARTY....and I believe we can do the same today in a God-honoring way.
5. We must be ON GUARD against "over consumption" or over something during this time of the year.
6. I'm often asked about the whole pagan question....and really a complete answer is far more in-depth than I will attempt at this point. One simple observation...yes....as the church spread it often incorporated practices of the "pagan cultures" around it into the church celebrations....HOWEVER.....I think we miss that the church WAS practicing Christmas in order to incorporate a pagan practice. In other words, celebrating Christ is not the issue. It is possible to throw out the pagan practices and get back to a more "traditional" Christmas.
7. I realize others have other convictions and as I said earlier I HONOR those convictions - I ask only that they honor my convictions as well. In real life, I have four friends who do not celebrate Christmas. I do not try to convince them they should celebrate my way. They should follow where God leads THEM. Really they DO celebrate Christ - just not the American Christmas version....I choose to celebrate Christ year round AND through the American Christmas traditions.
8. Several have told me lately, when discussing what I do at Christmas, that they wish I'd share more....now I think what I do is pretty basic....but since I do keep hearing this.... I did decide to say a few things now. I plan to go ahead and share now and again what we do and why we do it as we go about our Christmas. Some of the things I share are things I gleaned over the years from online friends at SHS, or ideas shared by local friends, and some are ideas that God simply implanted in our hearts. Now - I don't consider anything we do to be ESSENTIAL to anyone else. I don't consider anything I share to be WOW - NEW - but hey....we are all looking for ways to make spiritual truths and Christ real to our children and Christmas is FULL of opportunities....if God can use a pumpkin in a child's life...think what he can do with something pretty that smells nice....
PARENTING/DISCIPLINE IN PROVERBS - Ch. 23
*No, I've not quit my study. I've been reading and writing in my notebook but haven't had time to type my thoughts up. I'm going to try to post several in the next few days. I have resisted the urge to "type" up my thoughts immediately and skip the journal...because the writing and then retyping is an aide to meditation for me.
23:12 "Apply your heart to discipline and your ears to words of knowledge."
~Apply the very core of my being to personal discipline - I must be trained, corrected, instructed by God
~I must be careful which voices I listen to. Are they words that bring knowledge? Listen Up! Are they words based on the speaker's fear, condemnation, foolishness, presumptions, un-Christlike worldview? I must not take careless words of others to heart.
23:13 - 14 "Do not hold back discipline from the child, although you strike him with the rod, he will not die. You shall strike him with the rod and rescue his soul from sheol."
~I don't have time to rewrite what has already been written about rod, discipline, child.....if you're not familiar with my thoughts, you can click parenting and scroll down to Oct to see those studies.
~This is the ONLY one of the "rod verses" that mentions STRIKING a CHILD with a rod. In 26:3 fools are mentioned - not children.
~ Child here is a youth.
~In my mind this could be symbolic because rod could be symbolic - but I'm not sure how you "beat" someone with symbolism.
~I believe this verse could also be exaggerating to make a point....much as is used earlier in this chapter in verse 2 where we are told that a man of great appetite should put a knife to his throat. I reached this conclusion because the second half of this verse is NOT literally true. You CAN kill a person with a shebet. You can crush skulls, maim predators etc.
I have other thoughts - but really this will boil down to how you believe the word "rod" should be interpreted. Nonetheless, this verse is NOT saying that we have carte blanche to "beat young children with rods". Child = youth of marriageable, battle age
23:15 "My son, if your heart is wise my own heart will be glad."
~MY heart rejoices as I see my children begin to walk in wisdom
~The years of youth show the results of consistent shepherding, mentoring of a child from infancy
23:17 "Do not let your heart envy sinners, but live in the fear of the Lord always."
~My heart must be trained to constantly live with the Lord ever before me - there is no room in a heart of worship to envy unrighteousness
23:26 "Give me your hear, my son, and let your eyes delight in my way."
~Can I be trusted with the heart of my children? If not, I'd better confess and repent!
~Are my ways such that I can unequivocally say to my children - go ahead, "delight in my way"?
~I hurt more than myself when I wallow int he flesh instead of walking in the spirit
(OK began this hours ago...but hey...it's a start)
*No, I've not quit my study. I've been reading and writing in my notebook but haven't had time to type my thoughts up. I'm going to try to post several in the next few days. I have resisted the urge to "type" up my thoughts immediately and skip the journal...because the writing and then retyping is an aide to meditation for me.
23:12 "Apply your heart to discipline and your ears to words of knowledge."
~Apply the very core of my being to personal discipline - I must be trained, corrected, instructed by God
~I must be careful which voices I listen to. Are they words that bring knowledge? Listen Up! Are they words based on the speaker's fear, condemnation, foolishness, presumptions, un-Christlike worldview? I must not take careless words of others to heart.
23:13 - 14 "Do not hold back discipline from the child, although you strike him with the rod, he will not die. You shall strike him with the rod and rescue his soul from sheol."
~I don't have time to rewrite what has already been written about rod, discipline, child.....if you're not familiar with my thoughts, you can click parenting and scroll down to Oct to see those studies.
~This is the ONLY one of the "rod verses" that mentions STRIKING a CHILD with a rod. In 26:3 fools are mentioned - not children.
~ Child here is a youth.
~In my mind this could be symbolic because rod could be symbolic - but I'm not sure how you "beat" someone with symbolism.
~I believe this verse could also be exaggerating to make a point....much as is used earlier in this chapter in verse 2 where we are told that a man of great appetite should put a knife to his throat. I reached this conclusion because the second half of this verse is NOT literally true. You CAN kill a person with a shebet. You can crush skulls, maim predators etc.
I have other thoughts - but really this will boil down to how you believe the word "rod" should be interpreted. Nonetheless, this verse is NOT saying that we have carte blanche to "beat young children with rods". Child = youth of marriageable, battle age
23:15 "My son, if your heart is wise my own heart will be glad."
~MY heart rejoices as I see my children begin to walk in wisdom
~The years of youth show the results of consistent shepherding, mentoring of a child from infancy
23:17 "Do not let your heart envy sinners, but live in the fear of the Lord always."
~My heart must be trained to constantly live with the Lord ever before me - there is no room in a heart of worship to envy unrighteousness
23:26 "Give me your hear, my son, and let your eyes delight in my way."
~Can I be trusted with the heart of my children? If not, I'd better confess and repent!
~Are my ways such that I can unequivocally say to my children - go ahead, "delight in my way"?
~I hurt more than myself when I wallow int he flesh instead of walking in the spirit
(OK began this hours ago...but hey...it's a start)
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