Did someone call 911?

This is what my husband said
this evening ~~ and that a police
officer was here. "Here" was Emma's
room! There stood Brad , all geared
up, handcuffs and a fake gun and
his cadet uniform!!! I've never seen
my husband so excited. Well, yes I
have. But those handcuffs are sort
of like the ones the boys played with
when they were little. Don't all boys
have fake handcuffs? But there's
something about the real thing.

The real gun comes later. He's got to learn
how to use it before acquiring it!

Thankful for Much this Monday

My free book came in the mail today
from Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Somehow it touched me with the title
and knowing that Crabb will be digging
deep to the roots. Same number as the
books in the Bible!Maybe it is my love
of letters in the title.
Real ones in the mailbox.

It was like a hug in the mail.
A real hug this afternoon from
a friend who was in town as
we met for a brief coffee !
AND my lost library book
was on the library shelf!
NOW that was something to
be thankful for after looking
under beds, behind chairs, in
between other books to find
the Christmas book! So I thought
I would check the library. There it
was back on the shelf but still on
my card! I did say to her " Thank
the Lord we found it!!" (like she had
something to do with it, but I was
so thankful)

Now every Monday a habit has occurred
because of Ann at Holy Experience.
She always has beautiful photos of the
landscapes of her life in Canada . I love
reading her "eyes" in her words.
I don't walk around with a camera, in fact, I
usually forget it to important events. I have
no idea where it is at the moment. That
is Emma's department. So for her memory
in my old forgetfulness, I am thankful! I
think she keeps it in her room. Well, now
I know where it is!

Friday reading

Online activity sometimes gives
a different kind of reading, sort
of like reading magazines. I'm
thinking deeply after reading many
articles spurred on a discussion from
Charlotte Mason's Vol 2, Parents
and Children. We had watched
Frontline: Digital Nation
on PBS this past week. It is worth
seeing ( 90 minutes) and discussing.
CM was evaluating current educational
methods in the section we read. That
made me think WHAT is going on today.
How is multitasking changing the brain
and learning? How is technology changing
our lives as well as our educational system?
So in reading my literature class' current
book: The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott
( Third Crusade) , it is a slow reading
because he is detailed and he uses
language that is rich. One of my students
said " I find myself passing a paragraph
too quickly for understanding and going
back to reread it." YEAH. Has the computer's
quick pace made us jump from paragraphs
to paragraphs and skim over the richness
of language, place and heritage?

click on his name to see where he lived!
I want to go there. I want my students
to long to go there.

Rockwell's birthday

Five Cities That Ruled the World

Interesting article in the
Washington Post by the
author, Douglas Wilson,
on his book. Washington
isn't one of those cities but
lots of people from the 5
cities live in that city.

Gratitude for food

Down by the
creek at the
back of our
yard.



While the snow came and stayed,
I stayed in the kitchen! My house
filled to 7 and then 9 on Sunday
night for my husband's birthday.
We had church at home in front
of the fireplace and at the breakfast
table to listen to Tim Keller .
I had made Baked Oatmeal and
Cinnamon Rolls from this blog:

Finding Joy in My Kitchen

My daughter made the cinnamon
rolls again this morning and the
same thing happened with less
family here: GONE!

Birthday dinner:
I made Shrimp Bisque from
Tyler Florence, tweaking it to
what I had in the house but
most importantly the main
ingredient was in the freezer!
Then Julia Child's Boeuf
Bourguinon. YUM!

To the family at the table, I
am thankful! To the food that
the Lord has given us, I am
thankful. To the feeding of the
Word by a favorite pastor,
we are thankful.

And I'm thankful for my husband!
His legacy was sitting around him
this past Sunday!

Five Cities That Ruled the World

Thomas Nelson Publishing

In picking out books from Thomas
Nelson Publishers to review, I saw
this one and loved its cover. In the
homeschool world, the author is
well know. Douglas Wilson's ( check
out his son N.D. Wilson's new
children's fiction) book is an excellent
historical overview of each city's legacy.
Here is in one reading why the cities are
loved. That love flows out into culture as
we think of " Sidewalks of New York"
or Shelley's "Ozymandius" ( which my
literature students memorize) or " London
Bridge is Falling Down." History is linear.
It is going somewhere. Wilson quotes David
Hegeman : " Culturative history is God's unfolding
purpose for man, in which mankind plays
a chief role in the development of the earth from
garden-paradise to the glorious city of God."

I would use this book as I have with
"How Should We Then Live" by Francis
Schaeffer for a worldview and historical
learning tool. I loved the maps and the cover.
That is important to me for a book to feel
good and have aesthetic qualities.
George Grant put this book on his
10 Best of Non-Fiction in 2009.
I would definitely recommend this to the
traveller: Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London,
and New York.