The goings on

Taking a break from acronyms in my blog title. Titles are so important since they draw your readers in, but too much of a good thing is bad. I'm quite handy with catchy titles. Can't you tell?

Let's see, I've recently critiqued movies and Broadway shows. I've uncovered hidden identities. What's left? Guess I could just catch you up on what's been going on.

Been helping Amy get ready to take her AP English Language Exam. This'll take place in a week and a half. Friday she'll take her last 3 hour practice exam - so be praying for her about that and for the real exam. Those of you who have taken this three hour exam in the past know what she's in for. :-(

Benny and I have still been studying Hebrew. It's actually pretty cool now. We are in Vol. 2 of the textbook series and we are simply translating excerpts right out of the first chapters of Genesis. It takes me a while on one day to copy the Hebrew out of the book and then on another day I translate word by word looking at parts of speech, tense, suffixes, prefixes - things like that. Ben and I work separately these days because you just need some time, a quiet place, and a working brain to do it. I actually enjoy that kind of mental exercise.

Something Ben and I are working through together is Algebra. Haven't done Algebra a whole lot with my kids. They've been learning it on their own. But this time, I decided I wanted to go right through the whole course with him. This doesn't come natural to a humanities-type person like myself, but I'm actually enjoying this as well.

(I can sense the skeptics out there thinking, "Yeah, right. You say you enjoy rigorous study just because there might be some impressionable minds you're trying to indoctrinate into thinking that learning is supposed to be fun. I don't buy it." That's what some of you are thinking alright. But I can only speak for myself when I say that learning something new and totally outside of your area of expertise is gratifying. I like to be challenged and explore new areas in life while sitting in my own home. I am a homebody, remember.)

Tonight, Rob lead the bible study on Acts 11. Studying God's Word is actually the most exciting intellectual learning experience I know of. Just think of it - you can ALWAYS learn something new and very relevant to your life. I mean, tonight we talked about the nature and fruit of salvation, how a person operates within his family and church as he comes to God, and five things that make up a healthy church. We touched on other issues, too. And that's all from one chapter! I guarantee you that the next time we read it, we could talk about the same subjects or bring up others and never grow tired of these things. No wonder the Bible is called the Living Word - the depths and far reaches of it literally have no end!

Candace and I went to her college, IUK (Indiana University Kokomo), and took in an art exhibit created by a painter from Mexico. Mexico City to be precise. He grew up in the slums of the city and one day saw an art exhibit and became immediately inspired to become an artist. And a fine artist he has become - quite good actually. He uses vibrant colors to portray symbolic creatures and people. Each one of his paintings has a moon or a sun in it - and he paints with swirling strokes and uses lots of paint to create depth and texture. Some animals seem to leap out of the picture at you. Good feast for the eyes - and for the heart.

OK, one more thing. Let's see, I'll have to put this very delicately.
Let's pretend that there was this woman, and her oldest son went to college in a far away place called Texas. This woman missed her son and thought of him often wanting only the best things to happen to him. She wanted him to have a happy life and not be left out of any good thing in life. So one day on around May 8th, her son was to have his 20th birthday. This mother thought and thought about the best way for her son to celebrate his birthday with his friends even though he wouldn't technically be with them on his actual birthday. She wondered if there was some kind of harmless and fun activity that the students could do together where nobody gets hurt and everybody has fun. Preferably something to do with water, because her son just LOVED water. Hum, this is a nice beginning for a story. Wonder how it will end?