Millard Fillmore for President!

Opps, did that slip out?

What poetry form are you?

A cywydd llosgyrnog; I'm one. "A what?" Well, quite. There'd be no fun In being understood; I Thrive upon obliquity. Don't comprehend or follow me, For mystery's my ally. What Poetry Form Are You?

Main hall lobby

The bell is ringing,
People scurry.
Can remains comparing linguists
And I stand typing in the main hall lobby.

The public walks behind me
Thinking nothing of the
Plans and paths of
The only One who matters.

They breath His air.
They live on borrowed time.
They laugh and curse
Without a thought
Of wonder or dread.

Let me stop.
Let me at least slow down
To think of You
And see Your path
And breath Your air.

Psalm 30:1-5

O LORD, I will exalt You,
For You have lifted me;
My foes You have allowed not
To glory over me.

O LORD my God, I pleaded
That You might heal and save;
LORD, You from death have ransomed
And kept me from the grave.

His saints, O praise Jehovah
And thank His holy name.
His anger lasts a moment,
His grace a whole life time.

For sorrow, like a pilgrim,
May tarry all the night,
But then a shout of joy comes
When dawns the morning light.

Bibliophiliac

Here in the "Learning Commons" (aka the IUK library) I hear quiet mummers, but no one approaches me for essay tweeking - so I can whip off an entry.

Two weeks of uni classes are past, and I'm getting into the groove. Both my classes offer many happy future inspirations since I am highly interested in the content of both.

My Mon/Wed "History of the English Language" class (w/me & Candace) touches on my beloved Latin. It spans Old English, Mid English, and Mod English. I'm researching to see if I can find enough information to write about British everyday people being exposed to Latin by singing the Psalms. I'm very excited about this! I'll keep you posted.

My Mon night class is a survey of the study of Rhetoric throughout time - starting with the ancient Greeks. I've taught/studied Aristotle's Rhetoric two different times and this has proved to be extremely helpful. The reading for this class is pretty heavy and demanding, but I'm going to learn a lot. It should make me a better writer and a better teacher, I hope. We have to write timed essays in reaction to our reading at the beginning of each class. I haven't had to do that for years - whew!

I brought my student's papers here today, so I think I'll grade for a while. Later!

Eatin' carrots and drinkin' diet coke

Healthy - that's me.

College classes start today. Monday is my busy day: one morning class, work in the writing center, then one evening class. I do have a nice block of time in the afternoon at home for walking the treadmill and reading for class - which is what I did today.

Rob was off work and happily busying himself with his new hobby of knife sheath making. He's pretty good at it. Not surprising.

Candace and I have the morning class together. It's a 300 level class that is beefed up for her since she's an honors student and beefed up for me since I'm a grad student. Fun times.

Amy's around somewhere. Haven't seen her lately. You know Amy. She has a full class load and will keep working at Panera Bread too. Her classes which are very un-biology-like and very un-math-like will suit her well AND one theater class (she has all the fun.)

Ben worked this morning. He had to ride his bike to work a whole mile away. His van days are over since the "wan" is officially dead. Poor Ben. He's trying to sell it. He's now at his college class. I think he's going to enjoy this one since it's a computer design class - right up his alley.

Tomorrow it's back to teaching at SCA. I've missed the kids - it'll be good to see them again.

I'll be good and productive and do some reading now then go to class in a little bit.

Bye.

If it's the last thing I do ...

I'm going to post this.

Been to Texas and back. I sat in the hammock thinking about how cold it must be in Indiana and how warm and toasty I was feeling sitting in my short sleeved shirt reading a book. But I must admit that it was nice to get home, chill and all.

Once home, we had a wonderful time with our own brand of gift-giving around the tree. Our family with its quirky sense of humor is heavy on mysterious gift labels and gag gifts. I was given toe warmers, others got a children's pirate book, bubbles, remote helicopters, silly string, and a squishy glowing ball. One of the best parts of our Christmas was having a dear friend join us for our gift time, and later in the day, some other friends dropped by to exchange more gifts and gab. Christmas is the perfect time to reaffirm how others are connected to our lives. In the kingdom of Christ, this is pretty natural. And it should be.

Hope you are all having the best of days relaxing with family and friends, resting from normal busyness, and reflecting on eternity. May the Lord bless you in the coming year.

Yee-haw!!!

How's about this?

You'd think I'd died or somethin ... and all I did was go back to college after 22 years. Well, let me take a moment to wish you all greetings and inquire about your health.

I have been a very bad blogger, but a good student and teacher and tutor and wife and mother and friend. Or you better ask others about that, but that's what I shoot for anyway.

This morning I wrapped more presents, now I'm listening to Relient K come out of Ben's compy while I type. Relient K kinda grows on me ... strange.

I got a penguin photo holder @ the ladies' white elephant party and my hubby put a message in the penguine's holder. Oh well you'll just have to see for yourself ...















I've been bad. Because its rumored that I'm getting a camera for Christmas and I'm "borrowing" it for a while before, and heck, during Christmas to snap away. Here's some of my handywork:

First there's Canny's birthday:
























Ben gave her a bubble machine. Anyone who knows Canny knows this made her very happy.


And when Candace is happy, Amy and Ben are happy:






Guess who's toes:















I prefer to wear socks. That's me - can't you tell?
















And finally, Ben, when he had hair:

My brain is toast

Been in the writing lab for 3 hrs and 45 mins. Answered grammar and usage questions. Read dutifully about evolution nonsense, and pscho mumbo-jumbo. Now I deflate. Good for nothing but to be a pleasant grinning, blurry-eyed companion. Nothing to add to a conversation but incoherent ramblings.

Still, life is good. Completed my third week of college; taught my first week of SCA classes; tutored 15 hrs here at the Information Emporium (uh, the library); and started tutoring my two ten yr old tutees. (note alliteration)

Wish I had brought my bible. Wonder if they have a bible in this place? (note to self: put that little bible in backpack)

Meeting lots of new people, learning lots. Some good, some not so good. Glad there's life outside acedemia.

Still rather be at home. The Lord stretches me. Looking forward to walking with a friend tonight. Relish human contact with like-minded people.

Hubby's good. He works a lot too. We keep an eye on each other to make sure we don't stretch too thin. If you look at somebody and they're really not there. You know ... you can see right through them ... well, you need to pull 'em back and ball them all up and make them opaque again.

So be on the look-out for those transparent people out there.

Good talking with you.

Eloquent Example

Yesterday I started a new job tutoring English at IUK. Should be a good way to get me thinking about students and their requirements on the college level. Looking forward to a new challenge.

I told you that I'm starting back to college in the Fall, didn't I? Well, it's true. I will be taking 9 hours of graduate coursework as I kick off my master degree program. A little nervous. A little excited. Please pray. More on that later.

This summer I'm studying material in preparation to teach next year's high school/jr. high English classes. Recently, I came across a quote by Laurence Sterne that exposes our shallow attempts to write and points us to the true source of eloquence.
Thusly it follows:

There are two sorts of eloquence;
the one indeed scarce deserves the name of it,
which consists chiefly in laboured and polished periods,
an over-curious and artificial arrangement of figures,
tinselled over with a gaudy embellishment of words ...
the other sort of eloquence is quite the reverse to this,
and which may be said to be the true characteristic
of the Holy Scriptures;
where the excellence does not arise from a laboured and far-fetched elocution,
but from a surprising mixture of simplicity and majesty.

- Laurence Sterne

The prose and poetry of the Bible have never been equaled.

Let's become saturated in this sea of beauty and wisdom.

To Texas we will go ...

To Texas we will go,
Weddings, heat, & Java Jack Jo,
To Texas we will go.

The hunt

Um, hello.

Lem'see.

Last week, the clothes in my closet were only suitable for indoor viewing so I needed to branch out. How? Goodwill, of course! Everyone knows that the Carmel Goodwill houses the sweetest brand name selection of stuff around. Candace and I set out to Carmel for the hunt, and hunting was good. When we arrived our wildest dreams had come true - the sign on the front of Goodwill said: ONE-DAY-ONLY-HALF-PRICE-SALE! I fell to my shopping with a vengeance.

I've never shopped so hard in all my born days. Armed with 15 pairs of tan pants, I entered the dressing room. Passersby would see flurries of flying tan pants. Then emerging from the struggle with slightly disheveled hair, I returned 14 pairs of tan pants to the racks, lay the chosen one in the buggy* then proceeded to the black blouse section. The hunt continued. The perfect black blouse must be pursued and placed among the other trophies. How do you know it's the right one? You must find the one that ... looks-like-new-and-makes-me-look-sophisticated.

Tricky, I know.

Thinking of it again gives me a raging appetite. Think I'll go get a bowl of cereal.

*("buggy" - Texas word for "shopping cart".)

Life after graduation

Hey, I'm not talking about Josh (recent college grad) or Amy (recent high school grad). I'm talking about ME (recent I'vebeenworkingincessentlynightanddayoneveryone'sgrad
andI'matiredperson).

So all that has come to its wonderful culmination, and I will once again blog (as often as I ever did.) I love you and I still want to share my life with you. So stop by and visit every now and then, and you might find a post.

Today's sermon notes

Title: Walking in God's Will
Main reference: Gen. 31:1-21

I. Pay heed to the desire of a yearning heart.

• God made our hearts full of desires.
• He gives us the desires of our hearts - but at times, our hearts do deceive us.
• So, if we delight in Him, He surely does give us the desires of our heart - listen to them.
• God works through the desires of His people's hearts.

II. Examine carefully the direction of life's pressures.

• Pressures guide us - like a weather vane points out a direction from the pressure it receives.
• Don't try to figure out a direction prematurely. (i.e. What career should my little kid have?)
• Let the natural timing of life apply pressure under God.

III. Pray surely for the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

• God takes His word and illuminates it to us.
• We should take the word of God and apply it directly to our lives.

And today - I was talking about the sermon with Ben and he said that lately he has been using specific types of markings in his bible to facilitate ways of integrating the word of God into the lives of others. Does that make sense? Anyway, that struck me as a very good idea that I want to put into practice as I read the bible every day. I mean, I usually think of applying the word of God to my own life, but I need to more actively endeavor to apply the word of God to the lives of those around me. I'm so dense that I need to make a note about a verse as it relates to a specific person or I will never think of it again.

IV. Hold closely the remembrance of former promises.

• The promises we make help anchor us to God's way.
• Examples:
• church membership,
• marriage,
• children's baptism,
• children honoring parents,
• and all of the moral law.

V. Listen wisely to the guidance of close counselors.

• Honor your father and your mother. God will use their counsel to guide you. I was thinking that that's easy if you have godly parents, but what about if you have ungodly parents? But in the sermon, the point was brought out that anytime a Christian tries to honor (an even ungodly) parent's advice, God will guide through that (if the advice isn't against the biblical precepts).
• Find good counselors and surround yourself with them.

(I didn't include all the notes - just the ones that particularly ministered to me.)

I hope to walk with Christ this week. What an audacious thought! But the Lord Himself gives me the nerve to try.
As Switchfoot so eloquently puts it, "You're the only chance I'll take."

Have a blessed day and week!

Pull up an armchair let's drink to success

Digging through old photos preparing for Amy's graduation has made me realize that my little barista's about to graduate from high school.

From the very start, she was adorable...



















Now she's all grown up ...














Sorry, A, I couldn't resist.
Luv, Mum

This week's western civ quote

After the Allies were victorious over Hitler in WW2, Churchill and Stalin were chummy. They discussed the postwar spheres of influence of a bunch of sovereign countries, and jotted their thoughts down on a scrap of paper.

Win remarked to Joe, "Might it not be thought rather cynical if it seemed we had disposed of these issues, so fateful to millions of people, in such an off-hand manner? Let us burn the paper”.

Then Joe unconcerned about public opinion responded, “No, you keep it.”

Life is all about ...

I was talking to a friend on the phone yesterday philosophizing big time and I told her that the conversation would make great blog material and she laughed and said that she was honored to be hearing it first before it goes public.

But now 16 hours later since I can't remember a whip of what we were talking about, I'll just give you this week's list:

1. this morning it's cold as a freezer - (it snowed yesterday for crying-out-loud!)
2. my African violets look pretty now with the sun shinning on them
3. I watched our squirrel wake up and stretch and scratch himself
4. my daughters have both been sick
5. I went to Harvey Hinklemires and only ate one brownie
6. Ben and I are reading Proverbs
7. Hebrews has been quite a blessing, too
8. I worked on grad preparations for my high school daughter and my college son
9. I ironed and watched some 20 year olds play a board game with some pre-teens
10. I edited a paper twice without a brain
11. did I say I haven't had a brain this week (yeah, I think I did)

Breakfast calls - I love you all still (you know who you are) ... at least I still have a heart. :-)

Glass Menagerie

Ben and I just finished reading it aloud.

Typical tragedy:

• discontented mother nags
• discontented son flies
• discontented daughter withdraws

This is the stuff that stage tragedy is made of. The most dramatic effect of all is that I've been reading GM with my own son.

::Feels an overwhelming gush of sentimentality sweeping upon her. Thinks to herself that this is probably the last time she’ll ever read a play aloud with one of her kids.::

::Comforts herself by recalling that she and her son agreed to catch the next live GM performance that comes to town.::

In the kitchen Ben and I perform our own impromptu version of the play thusly:

Me: rattles off a series of ridiculous demands,
Ben: mumbles that he’s going to the movies now.

Tom's final words on stage reveals a restless heart - the same kind of discontented heart laid bare in many a rock song:

"TOM: I didn't go to the moon. I went much further--for time is the longest distance between two places. Not long after that I was fired for writing a poem on the lid of a shoebox. I left St. Louis. I descended the steps of the fire escape for a last time and followed, from then on, in my father's footsteps, attempting to find in motion what was lost in space. I traveled around a great deal. The cities swept about me like dead leaves, leaves that were brightly colored but torn away from their branches. I would have stopped, but I was pursued by something. It always came upon me unawares, taking me altogether by surprise. Perhaps it was a familiar bit of music. Perhaps it was only a piece of transparent glass. Perhaps I am walking along a street at night, in some strange city, before I have found companions. I pass the lighted window of a shop where perfume is sold. The window is filled with pieces of colored glass, tiny transparent bottles in delicate colors, like bits of a shattered rainbow. Then all at once my sister touches my shoulder. I turn around and look into her eyes. Oh Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be! I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into the movies or a bar, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger--anything that can blow your candles out!"

I put in bold the words that struck me. They speak volumes. So many frantically fill up their lives with movement; scared to think of what they'd discover if they ever stop. The chase is all that matters.

But life shouldn't find its purpose in movement. A sedentary life isn't the answer either, but if we could only be guided and moved along with a purpose!

The Lord Jesus Christ does move powerfully in lives. Oh to be profoundly impacted by the the Lord in His Word! Verses like Colossians 3:3 and Phlippians 1:21 point to the One who gives real purpose to life.

"For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."

and "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."


Just now, I spied a Morrisons bag from Scotland in my tiny bathroom - reminds me that the present can never quite leave the past behind. I feel the movement as I type in this dark room of mirrors. Right now I'm cold, but content. I smile because my real life is hid in Christ.

Eventfulness

Yesterday turned out to be not half bad.

1) I started homeschooling a seventh grade student. Hannah will come to our house twice a week and I'll help her to stay on top of her studies. I love teaching this age. We hit the crucial concepts and work on the study skills. Before you know it, they're ready to launch into the challenging high school stuff. I much prefer to grab a seventh grader and get some things ready for the next level than to finally get a kid in 11th grade and play catch-up. I love ya', Hannah!

2) Met with an IUK professor. More on that later.

3) Went to a belated Valentine Sweetheart Banquet. Romance, friends, and hilarity - what more could you want? Celebrating marital bliss made me thankful for my one true love and the happiness we share, and made me thankful that we were NOT selected to be interrogated publicly in Barry's version of the Newlywed Game. Wheeew!

4) Home late, to bed, then sweet sleep.

That about covers it. Later gator.

Does the devil have all the good comedy?

Click below to find out ...

Don't be mean to butterflies

and don't be mean to cats.

Hilarious as this guy is
- he definitely has some serious issues. :-D