Have you read?

Posted August 21st, 2007 by Jen in general
3 Comments »

Yes, my carnival round-up again.

The Christian Carnival at Parableman. And another one tomorrow at Chasing the Wind.

I like the post by Light Along the Journey - Enlarging My Soul. It was great to be reminded of the hymn Before the Throne of God Above; those words will move you and hopefully enlarge your soul.

Also, the view from her asks about Branding the Church.

The Carnival of Family Life at Why Homeschool.

Be thinking of Dana’s managing without her husband and upcoming travels as you read On a more personal note…

Sing For Him has a humorous post about the (Don’t) Stay at Home Mom. Need an answer for another curious bystander asking about socialization because you obviously don’t go anywhere?

The Carnival of Homeschooling at Home School Buzz.

I enjoyed Catholic Family Vignettes‘ mission statement in the post Why we homeschool.

The Educational Life has a great post at No Thank you, Mr. Disney. Just read the book!

The Carnival of Thomas Jefferson Education is up at Trinity Prep School.

Musings of a Prairie Girl shares about how It’s That Time Again, giving us a good look at what a Thomas Jefferson education means.

Labellavita asks us to Look and Look Again - be reflective and search out if you’re possibly recreating public school in your home.

Who even has time to read? Well, you know how time is. Somehow, we make time for the things that are important to us. Time is an elusive mystery to me.

What else are you reading? I’m reading Hosea.

Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces
but he will heal us;
he has injured us
but he will bind up our wounds.
……
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather
than burnt offerings.

And Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley.

Many Christians today suffer from historical amnesia. The time between the apostles and their own day is one giant blank. That is hardly what God had in mind. The Old Testament is sprinkled with reminders of God’s interest in time. When he established the Passover for the children of Israel, he said, “Tell your son…it will be like a sign…that the Lord brought us out of Egypt” (Exod. 13:8; 16, NIV). And when he provided the manna in the wilderness, he commanded Moses to keep a jar of it “for the generations to come” (Exod. 16:33, NIV).

Happy reading, dear ones!

The Eight

Posted July 9th, 2007 by Jen in general
8 Comments »

I’ll play on this one, since the thought-provoking Heidi tagged me.

Eight random bits about me:

1. All right, here are the rules.

2. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.

3. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

4. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight
things and post these rules.

5. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged
and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re
tagged, and to read your blog.

The Eight, but don’t judge me entirely on these tidbits…

1. I’m organizationally challenged, and really need some structure imposed on me to function efficiently.

2. I’ve lived in Arizona and never saw the Grand Canyon, I’ve lived in Michigan and never visited Mackinac Island, I’ve been at the base of the Eiffel Tower and never went to the top…carpe diem comes to mind, something I need to grasp.

3. I’m a left-handed woman married to a left-handed man, with four right-handed children. And my parents were both right-handed, with three of their four children being left-handed. Anyone confused yet?

4. My floors are clean. Even if the rest of my house is in a terrible disarray, my floors will be clean. It’s a compulsion. I usually request visitors to remove their shoes, and have even been known to ask people to wash their feet if they are barefoot upon removing their shoes. Okay, so it was some visiting family members who had stopped at a campground on the long trip to our home, and their feet were filthy. And the carpet was new. My next home will have very little carpet.

5. I am most defined by one thing: my love of God.

6. I would be quite happy living in the Montana wilderness with just my immediate family, and perhaps one or two other families. Anyone interested? :-)

7. I prefer books to movies, comedy to tragedy, classical to rock, old to new, mountains to valleys, dogs to cats, wine to beer, coffee to tea, cuddles to kisses, showers to baths, evenings to mornings, and hiking to shopping.

8. I’ve been to the theater, the bowling alley, and the press room of….yes, the White House. But I can’t divulge the circumstances. :-)

And you are tagged - if you’ve already done this or don’t want to waste your time on this, no hard feelings. :-)

Chasing the Wind
Dishpan Dribble
Bending the Twigs
Under His Construction
Small World
Chrysalis
Crossroads
Our 7 Qtpies

End of June Carnival Roundup

Posted June 26th, 2007 by Jen in general
3 Comments »

Summer is carnival time, and I can’t wait for the Deschutes County Fair over here! My kids rode a camel there last year, and loved the boat ride, the balloons, the elephant ears, the animal exhibits, the Fun House, and the rodeo. Not so fun was making the Ferris Wheel operator stop the ride midway so I could remove my hysterical, scared-to-death daughter. This year, she says, she really wants to try it again. And I think I need one of those rope halter things for my two year old to wear - will I look barbaric? I almost lost a child there last year.
Here’s the carnival roundup in the blogosphere:

The Carnival of Family Life is up at Everyday Disasters.

The Carnival of Principled Government is up at Principled Discovery.

The Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Homeschool Hacks.

The Christian Carnival ii will be up tomorrow at Chasing the Wind.

photo credits: Deschutes County Fair

Carnival Roundup

Posted June 14th, 2007 by Jen in general
0 Comments

This past week in the blogosphere carnival world of interest to me:

The Carnival of Homeschooling “Fun” edition is hosted by Kris’ Eclectic Homeschool.

The Carnival of Family Life 58th edition is hosted by MamaBlogga.

The Christian Carnival 176 is hosted by Nick Queen.

The Carnival of Principled Government 7th edition is hosted by Principled Discovery.

That’s all for now. I don’t have time to highlight my favorite posts out of these, but do go read as you have time.

Wireless is Touchy

Posted June 6th, 2007 by Jen in general
6 Comments »

I’ve been out of the internet loop for a short spell as our wireless internet went awry. Wireless obviously has some great advantages, but there’s lots of bugs to be worked out - at least in my little part of the world that depends on a signal from the hill over yonder called Gray Butte. Maybe the problem was the experimental hardware given to us.

Random catch-up. June allergies have hit me in full force. I’m out in this big valley surrounded by fields of hay-fever, er, hay and such. I shouldn’t complain, because I moved to Central Oregon from Eugene, right downwind from the “Grass Seed Capital of the World.” Now that was unbearable. I blame my terrible allergies on my mother, who didn’t breastfeed me. Ah, can’t really blame her, I was born in a generation where breasfeeding was not at all trendy. But trendy or not, don’t ever expect sympathy from me if you’re tired of nursing your baby after your obligatory six weeks.

[This paragraph used to be about a certain difficult situation, which my sensitive (when did that happen? :-)) husband thought maybe shouldn’t be discussed here. So what you get now is that I continued to struggle this week with a relationship that I thought was moving forward into some degree of restoration, only to discover that it may actually be worse than I thought.]

Last week alone I overdrew my bank account, had several bloody noses from all that allergy-driven nose blowing, missed an important appointment, broke a dish, incurred countless angry customers who couldn’t get through on my business phone (that wireless problem), allowed laundry to pile up to my eyeballs, let the [edited: relationship issue] drag me into a fierce battle between depression and condemnation, and man, I’m feeling beat-up.

Wireless is touchy and so am I. I need to go get a good dose of amazing grace, so Lord, here I come.

Carnivals

Posted May 22nd, 2007 by Jen in general
1 Comment »

The 73rd Carnival of Homeschooling is up over at The Lilting House. Thanks, Melissa, for a great job putting that together. Have a blog post to submit for next week’s carnival? Here’s the handy submission form, hosted next by About Homeschooling. Deadlines are Mondays, 6 p.m.

And I missed last week’s homeschooling excursion to Hawaii, so check that out too, at Palm Tree Pundit. The flowers in her backyard are reason enough to go visit.

Another notable carnival is up, The Gonzo Education Carnival, the theme being Education, What’s the Point? That’s over at Principled Discovery, one of my favorite reads. Dana is also seeking submissions for the Carnival of Principled Government, and you can submit here.

And the Christian Carnival ii will be up tomorrow at Pseudo-Polymath.

There are so many carnivals out there….so much to read (so little time). But it’s a good way to find a group of articles you’re interested in that otherwise wouldn’t cross your screen.

Christian Carnival CLXXII

Posted May 16th, 2007 by Jen in general
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The Christian Carnival CLXXII is up over at Crossroads: where faith and inquiry meet.

I enjoyed the Sung’s Razor post by Tantalizing If True - had this amazing Chinese Christian attended a better Bible College, seen better Christian videos, or had a better pastor?

Sure to move you is Erich’s post Almost Persuaded, at the blog CounterCulture. It’s a call to pray for people around the world in those cultures where belief in Jesus will mean death, disowning, or difficulties we couldn’t understand in our country.

Unity in Diversity is also a good read, over at We Are in Jesus. Apropos to my current church situation. Thanks, Tina, that was good for me to read.

Lots of other good stuff there, head on over….

I Think

Posted April 21st, 2007 by Jen in general
6 Comments »

Je pense, donc je suis. Rene Descartes expressed this idea, and I will now declare: I have received a Thinking Blogger Award, Therefore I Am. Thanks, Jane at Halfmoon Happenings for the tag. I am to reply by nominating five other bloggers that make me think. But first, I must say, I wish Descartes’ supposition was reversed: I am, therefore I think. If that was true, I wouldn’t be reading such nonsense at this or this. But alas. Now this old lady is thinking, and if she had a blog, I’d surely nominate her.

I’ll get on the five bloggers - they may have been nominated before (is that against the rules?), and if so, just consider them doubly-good thinkers. And they will be discharged from their duty of nominating five others.

1. Pebble Chaser: I regularly stalk this site, and if Heidi has a sitemeter, I’m sure I send it off the charts. I appreciate her witty, sometimes zany, humor, as well as her dedication to Truth and the seeking of G-d’s will. And she’s really smart, and contrary to her statement that she left her superpower at Walmart, she does, in fact, possess it.

2. Educating Germany: Natasha has taken on the task of lobbying for education reform in Germany, where homeschooling is illegal and parents are routinely jailed, fined, and had their children taken away - solely for the “crime” of homeschooling. I value her efforts in this cause that is very dear to my heart (which I wrote about here and here).

3. Principled Discovery: Dana, you always get me thinking. Her tagline is “If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3. Dana is dedicated to the preservation of the foundations of our great country, is 200 years behind in her politics, and you can count on her to be one of the first to expose the latest erosion of democracy.

4. Susan Wise Bauer: I must include this blog, because I’m indebted to Susan’s book, The Well-Trained Mind, for my successful jump into homeschooling. I went to Barnes & Noble one day last year, after deciding to homeschool, looking for a book, any book. This is the one I randomly grabbed, and while I’m not always the strictest adherent to Classical Education, it was the roadmap I needed. This blog is rarely about homeschooling, but it’s so fun to keep up on Ms. Bauer’s latest writings and adventures.

5. Sillie Lizzie’s Rock: I just discovered this blog within the last week, and can’t remember how I even stumbled across it. It’s my “wildcard” submission for the Thinking Blogger award, because it’s really new to me, but, boy, oh boy, there’s nothing faint-hearted or gutless or even silly about this blog. Do not enter without realizing the tagline: Subverting the subversion…unapologetically Christian and conservative, a blog at the intersection of religion, politics and whatever else I have on my mind at the moment!”

There you have it, and here is the beautiful award itself:

It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well. -Descartes

Descartes photo credit: Wikipedia

Praying for Blacksburg

Posted April 17th, 2007 by Jen in general
1 Comment »

My deepest sympathies and prayers go out to Virginia Tech families of the murdered and wounded, and to the entire student body, the faculty, the town of Blacksburg, and the state of Virginia.

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

photo credits: Bob Veltri, photo of War Memorial Chapel, Virginia Tech

Top Five Reasons I Shop at Goodwill

Posted April 13th, 2007 by Jen in general
2 Comments »

My friends know I’m a long-time Goodwill shopper. Hey, everyone loves a bargain, but I thought I’d share my motivation. When springtime hits, like no other season do I want some new outfits! Goodwill, here I come.

TOP 5 REASONS I SHOP AT GOODWILL

1. Let someone else receive the off-gassing of chemical-laden clothing. By the time I get it, it’s about 90% done.

2. I have a hugely better chance of finding modest clothing in today’s leave-it-to-cleavage, must-show-midriff, is-that-your-skin-or-your-clothes culture. Goodwill can be a few decades behind in fashion, but I’ll sacrifice a little trendiness for decency.

3. I look filthy rich. I can only afford to buy that Anne Klein blouse at Goodwill — for $4.99, instead of $69 at Nordstrom. Yes, it’s there, you just have to be patient and unearth it from amongst the rags. That’s the fun of the hunt.

4. It’s a feel-good experience. I feel good about not being wasteful, I feel good about saving my family’s money, I feel good about participating in the recycling effort.

5. Shrinkage has already happened - I know exactly what I’m getting.

Hello world!

Posted February 10th, 2007 by Jen in general
0 Comments

Hey, I’m writing about faith, family, and life. I read classics and the Bible. My greatest goal in life is to raise my children to love God and love people (immediately, this looks like simply preventing them from killing each other). I made up a song I sing to my kids every night, and it’s my hope for all: May a Spirit of Peace and Patience wash over you, May you be slow to anger and abounding in love.