True Stories - Homeschool Blogger

Redirection

Thu, 9 Aug 2007 16:40:00 -0500

Hi all,

I've been happily blogging at: hiddenart.wordpress.com

Come on over for a visit.

I've been tagged, again!

Tue, 22 May 2007 14:09:00 -0500

I've been tagged by Titus2woman. Check out her beautiful new blog on wordpress.

A. Available or Single?
Very married

B- Best Friend.
The sweet husband of mine

C- Cake or Pie.
Depends on the day and the flavor

D- Drink of Choice.
Water, or coffee

E- Essential Item.
Bible

F- Favorite Color.
Orange

G- Gummi Bears or Worms.
Worms

H- Hometown.
Wakeeney

I- Indulgence.
Blogging

J- January or February.
Cold or colder? How about June or September

K- Kids.
Yes

L- Life is incomplete without…
Christ

M- Marriage Date.
June, 1988

N- Number of Siblings?
2 very ornery older brothers

O- Oranges or Apples?
apples

P- Phobias/Fears.
Before children I was terrified of spiders. My kids forced me to become somewhat more brave. They’re just so creepy.

Q- Favorite Quote.
“The sneaky will always outsneak the unsneaky.” by my dear husband

R- Reasons to smile.
the temperature outside is perfect right now, no mosquitoes, and the flowers are blooming

S- Season(ing).
spring until fall comes, then fall
kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

T- Tag Three.
Axel, MissMonkey, Marianette

U- Unknown Fact About Me.
if I tell you, then it will no longer be unknown

V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals.
I love veggies more than meats, but I do oppress

W- Worst Habit.
sitting in front of the computer for too long

X- X-rays or Ultrasounds.
I don’t really get this one. How about xylophones or ukuleles? Definitely ukuleles

Y- Your Favorite Foods.
the list is limitless

Z- Zodiac.
Leo

I've been tagged

Mon, 21 May 2007 22:51:00 -0500

My good friend tagged me, so here are 7 random things about myself. Enjoy!

1. I seem to gravitate to the color orange. My high school colors were orange and black. The room I am sitting in now is orange. The shirt I am wearing now is orange. My purse/backpack is orange. My shoes are sienna, a lovely earthy orange.

2. Green is also a theme in my life. My kitchen where I spend so much of my time is green. My pants are olive green. My sandals are bright green.

Okay, my earrings are orange and green.

3. Color means a great deal to me. It inspires me. It can bring me down. I often make purchase choices when both are good products based on the color and styling of the label.

4. I am and always have been for the underdog. I've always had an underlying thought, "If I don't love them, who will."

5. I've always felt like I've never really fit in. I rejoiced when I learned from the Bible that we are strangers and pilgrims on this earth. This gave me hope and peace. There is a place that I fit perfectly. I will be home one day.

6. Teasing really hurts my feelings. Am I overly sensitive, or do I see the underlying truth behind the tease?

7. I have never looked forward to chatting on the phone, or making phone calls, except when talking to my mother. I love to sit face-to-face over a cup of coffee with a friend. Perhaps it is because my attention is held visually and I get distracted with what is in front of me while talking on the phone. Perhaps it is because I cannot see the facial expression to see how a person really feels. I revert to email rather than phone calls, unless it's my mother.

I'm not going to tag anyone else. I am going into dormancy.

"Ex-prostitutes" as teachers OR Individuals hired by their qualifications, not their pasts, as teachers

Sun, 20 May 2007 23:32:00 -0500

“They may take the prostitute off the street but it's going to take more than a good job to take the street out of the ex-prostitute.”

This quote from this post is a gross across-the-border judgment about women who have been victims of prostitution. These are individuals, not a mass group of unreformable, valueless nothings.

Romans 2:1 Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.

Senate Bill 724 is not about reformation. It is about allowing an individual with a past record and a reformed life to be free from job discrimination.

“The Teacher Standards and Practices Commission may not issue a teaching,

personnel service or administrative license [shall be issued] to any person until the person has

attained the age of 18 years and has furnished satisfactory evidence of proper educational training.

(2) The [Teacher Standards and Practices] commission may also require an applicant for a

teaching, personnel service or administrative license to furnish evidence satisfactory to the commission

of good moral character, mental and physical health, and such other evidence as it may

deem necessary to establish the applicant¢s fitness to serve as a teacher.

A school district may employ or contract with a person who has been convicted of a

crime under ORS 167.007, convicted of an attempt to commit a crime under ORS 167.007 or

convicted in another jurisdiction of a crime that is substantially equivalent, as defined by

commission rule, to a crime under ORS 167.007 if the school district determines that the

person is fit to be employed by or to contract with the school district.”

A good article.

This post/blog may be a call to "keep children home where they belong," but it is biased.

Some of my dearest friends are what you at TOS call “ex-prostitutes.” That’s like calling me an ex-accountant, or an ex-bar-fly. I am actually a teacher now.

New Blog

Fri, 18 May 2007 22:18:00 -0500

I am trying out WordPress in the blogger world. Check out my new blog:

http://hiddenart.wordpress.com/

Balance in Exercise re-revisited

Fri, 11 May 2007 08:22:00 -0500

Yes, I have touched on this topic several times since I've started blogging. It has been a struggle of mine. I desperately needed help in the motivation department. Feeling rotten and lacking energy just wasn't motivation enough.

We joined the YMCA a three weeks ago. Since then, I am actually getting regular exercise. I have found that I am motivated by taking classes. The family has the option of taking the classes with me, or of working out in the machine area, or swimming, or playing basketball. We've all had a great deal of fun with this, and I am feeling good again. Now my goal is to get those aging, flabby muscles of mine back in shape.

This time spent exercising has been good for the whole family, but there is always a catch. I haven't had time to blog. Life is give and take, isn't it? Until we get our schedule figured out and it becomes routine, I fear I will not be spending much time here in blogland. I miss it already, and look forward to my moments posting and commenting. First and formost are my responsibilities as wife, mother, and teacher. Then I get to blog.

The Hidden Art of Homemaking

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 22:22:00 -0500

One of my favorite books of all time is The Hidden Art of Homemaking: Creative Ideas for Enriching Everyday Life by Edith Schaeffer. Edith says:

I would define 'Hidden Art' as the art which is found in the 'minor' areas of life. By 'minor' I mean what is involved in the 'everyday' of anyone's life, rather than his career or profession. Each person, I believe, has some talent which is unfulfilled in some 'hidden area' of his being, and which could be expressed and developed.

Contents:
1 The First Artist
2 What Is Hidden Art?
3 Music
4 Painting, Sketching, Sculpturing
5 Interior Decoration
6 Gardens and Gardening
7 Flower Arrangements
8 Food
9 Writing -- Prose and Poetry
10 Drama
11 Creative Recreation
12 Clothing
13 Integration
14 Environment

This is not a quick read. I found each chapter to be so full of meat that it took some time to finish the book. But it has intrigued me so that I have read it again and again.

Since first picking this book up seven years ago, God has been developing me creatively. He is making me aware of ways to make life more alive and fulfilling in the everyday. He has used His expression of creativity in Edith to affect and change my life.

I entertained for a short time the idea of starting another blog just about this topic, Hidden Art. Reality has since knocked on my door as I realized that I struggle with one blog most times. Two would be too much. So I am going to add a new category called Hidden Art. I'll be sharing thoughts from this book and from my life on how to incorporate Hidden Art into our daily lives, how to express ourselves creatively in the everyday. Let the posts begin...next week. This weekend my parents will be visiting!

Clutter D�j� vu

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 07:40:00 -0500

Yesterday I did something so strangely familiar. I cleaned the laundry area. Seems this has all happened before. Surely I wouldn't allow my laundry shelves to get so cluttered again, would I? And I never did post pictures of my storeroom. Scary.

Sunday is my day of rest. I don't have a schedule. The day flows. The only thing I'm sure to do is go to church, because I want to. Yesterday, I also wanted to attack the clutter in my storeroom and the laundry area. Cleaning this was not work to me. It was so spirit-lifting. Clutter and disorganization can be debilitating. This clutter built up over time. At some point it became a burden which I was reminded of each time I did laundry or tried to put something away in my storeroom.

Anyway, this time I took the organization of these areas to a higher level. I am hopeful that it will be so easy to put things away, that I will never entertain the idea of just setting them down.

For those of you struggling with clutter, check out Amy's blog. She has created this blog specifically for the purpose of conquering the clutter giant. Although she is not actively posting at this time, she has The Colossal Clutter Cleanup challenge and beautiful organizer available for FREE on her side bar. Check it out. Work through her assignments. You, too, can conquer clutter!

Welcome a wonderful new poet to blogger land

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 09:59:00 -0500

Check out this new blog. There is some beautiful worship going on there.

The truth well spoken

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 17:23:00 -0500

We visited Yolanda at the county jail today. She has gained weight and looks healthy, even after her goiter surgery. Better than her health was her attitude. She let many tears flow as she talked of her mistakes and her future. She so desperately wants to make the right choices, especially when she is released. She has the sense that if she fails again, she will have no more chances. This next week she goes to a year-long drug recovery program through the penal system. This is her choice. She could be released from jail in about 5 months, but she has the desire to be made well, to be healed. Although she is not excited about attending group sessions from 7am to 9pm each day, she desires to overcome her addiction even more.

Even more exciting than her desire for recovery is the truth that she is drawing closer to God. She is beginning to pray in preparation for things, rather than as an afterthought. She is turning to God to help her make right choices. She is even beginning to feel compassion for many of the other women in her cell block that have committed heinous crimes. When she first arrived, knowing what these women had done really bothered her. Her heart is melting.

My son was along on the visit. He and my daughter flipped a coin to see who got to go. Only two visitors were allowed. When we pulled in the garage after the visit, he made a perfectly true statement that is profound for a 10 year old.

“It doesn’t matter how you are raised or what your childhood was like. It all comes down to the choices you make, doesn’t it?”