I planted dozens of seeds in little plastic containers, wanting a head start on the short growing season in my region.

The weather warmed up but I got busy. The seedlings outgrew their tiny containers and were silently begging to be placed in the spacious garden where their roots could dig down deep. Instead, the roots grew the only way they could in their rigid pots – in circles.

The day finally came when I had time to transplant these precious seedlings into the garden. They had already looked wan and peaked, but surely, I thought, they would be fine in the garden. I had so much hope, but to my sorrow, every one of them died within days. I remembered how lively and promising they had looked those first days of breaking through the soil.

With no way for the circular roots to quickly retrain and move into the surrounding dirt of the garden bed, my plants gave up and faded away. Had I been an experienced gardener, perhaps I could have worked with the root ball, done some corrective root pruning, and sent them on their healthy way. Alas.

I made a mental note to myself. If ever the circumstance is such that I am like a vigorous new plant trapped in a too-small and unyielding pot, running in circles for lack of latitude and destined for stunted growth, I need to make immediate exit plans if I want to survive.

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!

Eight random bits about me:

1. All right, here are the 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

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

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.

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.

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.

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’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: Kinderlehrer 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

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 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.

I was in my early 20s when I was given Bonhoeffer’s great book, The Cost of Discipleship, which he wrote in 1937 – quite prophetically, I must say, as he paid the ultimate price. “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die,” said Bonhoeffer.

Just as a prophet is not accepted in his own town (Matthew 13:57), Bonhoeffer was speaking so far ahead of his time that I believe most of his contemporaries benefited little from his life. Many of his fellow pastors and churchpeople supported Hitler’s policies. The true beneficiaries of Dietrich Bonhoeffer are those of us living today.

As he explained his involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler, Bonhoeffer said: “If I see a madman driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders, then I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.” A further glimpse into the action-oriented Bonhoeffer was his collaboration in an effort to help a group of Jews escape to Switzerland that led to his arrest and imprisonment in April 1943, two years prior to his execution.

So, I’m trying to lay the framework of all of this history onto life today. Here’s a Bonhoeffer quote that helps his death bring some benefit to me today: “Nothing is fixed, and nothing holds us. The film, vanishing from memory as soon as it ends, symbolizes the profound amnesia of our time. Events of world-historical significance, along with the most terrible crimes, leave no trace behind in the forgetful soul.”

Can we please not suffer from profound amnesia? Can we please not be illiterate regarding church history? Bonhoeffer displayed the most admirable resistance to tyranny you can hope for; yet this was too late for his own age – we are the recipients, and our call is to respond to the conditions that make tyranny possible. We are offered the opportunity, if we would educated ourselves with this history, to direct action at the root of the problem, instead of being forced into a violent struggle with the full-blown fuhrer.

So, The Cost of Discipleship teaches me that believing in Jesus isn’t enough – there is a call to action, and Bonhoeffer sets a real-life example of sometimes radical action. Bonhoeffer warns against the “cheap grace” that advocates belief without obedience. “Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. It remains an abstract idea, a myth.”

Here are some issues I’ll be exploring in more detail in another post – this is an excerpt from the 2003 documentary film, Bonhoeffer:

The church has three possible ways it can act against the state. First, it can ask the state if its actions are legitimate. Second, it can aid the victims of the state action. The church has the unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering society even if they do not belong to the Christian society. The third possibility is not just [to] bandage the victims under the wheel, but to jam a spoke in the wheel itself.

Do you think the church has any reason today to act against the state? Ahh, now we’re getting to the heart of this, and we must examine this closer if Bonhoeffer’s martyrdom is to have been of any profit.

A family business can blend well with homeschooling, as many have discovered.
We have an online sports merchandise company, TeamMASCOT.com, that I have to juggle along with the needs of the family every day. But as far as jobs go, this isn’t too bad. It’s online only, so no need to keep store hours or tend to walk-in customers.

I thought I’d give you a little glimpse into this part of our life. First, a few FAQs:

1. Are you big sports fans? No, we just have a sports store because, well, other people (lots of them) are sports fans. The sports marketing industry is enormous and rapidly growing. My husband just came up with the idea, along with another buddy of his, and he built the website (it helps to be a computer programming genius).

2. Where do you keep all your products? Well, up until a year ago, it was the home office, the hallway, the bedroom (yes, my bedroom full of NFL trashcans…very romantic), the garage. You can imagine the tripping that occurred, so we now have a warehouse in town where we keep it all.

3. What’s your role in the business? My job is mostly product management. We carry various items, from bumper stickers to wall clocks, with team logos (NFL, NCAA, NBA, MLB, NHL, and NASCAR). I order products to maintain our inventory, look for new vendors, manage customer service, and pack orders on the days our part-time help is out. There was quite a learning curve when I came on to help my husband over two years ago, since I didn’t know whether the Steelers belonged to Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, or whether they played football or baseball. I’ve learned a thing or two since then, and can now fairly accurately predict the contenders for the Superbowl, the World Series, the Bowl Championships, etc.

4. How do you fit your business in with homeschooling? This is a question that some days I ask myself as I’m ready to throw that Indianapolis Colts hammer out the window. I have to spend an average of 2-3 hours a day on TeamMASCOT, depending on the season. Less during the offseason, much more during the Christmas rush. I have a computer set up at home that is remotely connected to the warehouse, allowing me to order products from my vendors, add new products, reply to customer inquiries – really anything except pack up the order. So, I try to work very early hours and very late hours and save the bulk of the day for the family.

OK, there’s a little run-down. The kids come to warehouse on the days I have to go in, for a few hours, and I’m training them to work. I consider this part of their education. My son pictured above, who is 7, is very capable of learning the various teams and their logos, and can pick orders for me. He’s learning about buying and selling – wholesale, retail, and profit margins. Even my five year old daughter is eager to help:

Is this the Steelers, Mom?

And right down to my three year old, who LOVES to put the labels on the packages (I won’t even go into the large packages that require packing peanuts, such fun for a three year old):

Some customers might get a crooked postage tag!

There are actually a lot of skills to teach, and I think that figuring out what size box to use for what product is a great math lesson.