December 17, 2009
Do You See What I See?
I was putting some laundry in the washer in our *NEW* laundry room (YAY!) and lifted my head and saw this:
Dec. 17, 2009
It's a Wonderful Life
Briana has been in the musical version of It's a Wonderful Life for the past month. It closes this Sunday, and we're going over to see it again.
George Bailey contemplating jumping off the bridge~
"I'm worth more dead than alive."
Briana on the right talking to Ernie and Bert while the
main scene if playing out somewhere else on stage~
"I'm On My Way"~
Mr. Potter (in the wheel chair)~ played by Troy, the guy that Briana has been courting the last 7 months.
"Syncopation Rog" ~ high energy dance!
George and Mary's wedding~
Run on the bank. Briana is the one who looks like she's about to knock him
upside his head!
Briana got to play Elsie, Sam Wainwright's wife from New York. She got to talk with a heavy NY accent (think the old movies). .......with a southern twang. ; ) She's in the middle with the hat.
"Sam's going to take me around the world!"
I had to throw this picture in even though it's not a very good one. : ) This is a song when George's brother, Harry, comes home a war hero. Briana and Bob (the same guy that plays Sam Wainwright), decided and got the director's permission for him to pick her up and swing her around. You can see them in the back. The thing is, this is a calm swing in this picture. When I saw the show a couple of weeks ago, she was like parallel to the ground. She was FLYING! : )
Mr. Potter and George~
"Teacher says every time a bell rings, another angel gets his wings."
"Atta boy, Clarence."
Dec. 17, 2009
What I Don't Want for Christmas - A Gift Certificate of Death
Every year my mom and I play this game that we call, "What I don't want for Christmas." We just tell each other all the things we do not want, from singing fish mounts to hideous sweaters. I could be shopping in a store and something will catch my eye and I have to call my mom right away to tell her that I don't want the new Barry Manilow CD, because you never know, she may have forgotten that I despise Barry Manilow and she could be buying it for me at that very moment. I'm a good daughter for helping her to spend her money wisely.
But this . . . this is by far at the top of my I Do Not Want list. Planned Parenthood is now offering gift certificates that can be used for abortions. How would you like to get that gift? "Here Loved One, I don't want you to experience the joy a baby brings into your life because I think you're stupid and should just find your joy in material objects that don't return love, teach you valuable lessons, and brings you closer in a relationship with a Creator."
A sagerat salute to The Pilgrim over at Defending. Contending. The link in that blog post to the resource is no longer working but you can read more at Fox News.
Dec. 16, 2009
Background Checks for Homeschoolers?
World Net Daily reports that just may become the case for British parents who wish to homeschool their children. The law stems, in part, to a problem that some parents are using homeschooling as a way to disguise abuse. However, what the law doesn't stipulate is what is required to pass a background check, it invades the rights and privacy of parents, and presumes them guilty until proven innocent.
As I've said before, there are already laws in place--in both Britain and the U.S.--in regards to child abuse. Government agencies are refusing to back those laws up. While there are several homeschool parents in Britain who are in agreement with making tighter restrictions on themselves in order to get rid of the few who give them a bad name, they need to recognize that this bill isn't really about protecting them. It's about a government trying to find ways to slow homeschooling down--period. Find out which parties and agencies are backing this bill and I think you'll find they aren't, and never have been, friendly to homeschooling.
Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB
December 15, 2009
Wordless Wednesday: My Little Boy Blue
Dec. 15, 2009
Carnival of Homeschooling
Is up at The Common Room. And I am actually participating this week!
Dec. 15, 2009
The Twelve Days of Christmas
From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were
not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone
during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics.
It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning
plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each
element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality
which the children could remember.
-The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.
-Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
-Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
-The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.
-The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
-The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
-Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving,
-The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
-Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness,
Gentleness, and Self Control.
-The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.
-The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
-The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.
Cool, huh!?!
~Candy~
Monday, December 14, 2009
A First Corinthians Christmas
If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another cook.
If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.
If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir’s cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.
Love stops the cooking to hug the child. Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband. Love is kind, though harried and tired. Love doesn’t envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.
Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way. Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure.
December 14, 2009
In Love
I am soo adoring not only this song, but the meaning behind it. Brayden and Talitha wanted their marriage to be an example to all of how the Savior feels about His people: Us.
This is just beautiful and precious!
Such a wonderful reminder that we need to be constantly ready for our bridegroom to come get us!
Matthew 25:6 It was the middle of the night when the cry rang out, `The bridegroom is here! Go out to meet him!'I'm so looking forward to the day when my bridegroom comes! I'm in love with this song! :D
©AmandaDixon2009
Dec. 13, 2009
The Short List
I picked up Book by Book by Michael Dirda at the library, because when one doesn't feel like reading a whole book itself the next best thing is to read a book about books. It's a collection of various book lists, book reviews, essays on life and reading, and quotations.
Early on in the book he creates a list of "patterning works"--books that the rest of literature is based on, responds to, even reacts to. Not meant to be a comprehensive list of great works, but rather the most basic accumulation of the literature a person would need to understand what all the rest of the books are talking about.
Here is his list:
The Bible (KJV wording has been most influential)It struck me that this would make an excellent basic literary reading plan for K-12, and not just because I already own almost everything on it or was going to buy it for myself anyway at the first opportunity. (Bullfinch is hard to find second-hand.) My own less learned career as a reader leads me to concur that these are works that keep cropping up, one way or another. I've read or at least dabbled in nearly all of them, and they are all intrinsically worth the time they take, as well.
Bulfinch's Mythology (or other good collection of Greek, Roman, and Norse Myths)
Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey
Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
Dante, Inferno
The Arabian Nights
Thomas Malory, Le Morte D'Arthur (tales of King Arthur and his knights)
Shakespeare's major plays, especially Hamlet, Henry IV, Part One, King Lear, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Tempest
Cervantes, Don Quixote
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen
Any substantial collection of the world's major folktales
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Furthermore, this is a manageable list. There's something for every age and it could be easily covered over twelve years, leaving lots of free time for reading according to individual taste and family obsessions. It's also a list of works that I can envision giving to my children to read, at the appropriate time (and, for some, only with guidance or editing).
In considering the tension between adult mandates and child initiative, I often ponder exactly what my role is. The most essential goal, for me, is to cultivate passion--in the area of literature, the goal is that my children will love reading. After that, the point of focused study in youth is to provide the tools--the essential ideas, experiences, and connections--that will never cease to serve them in new discoveries.
In that context, these are nearly all books I would be willing to require reading because of their own value. (And the ones I'm more doubtful about are the ones I'm least likely to need to require.) There are many other worthwhile books, but one cannot possibly fit every worthwhile book into the first years of life (or perhaps into all the years of life). The point of this list is to read the books that will allow you to understand the rest of the books you will ever read.
But perhaps there are a few more out there. Any other thoughts?
