A Few More Books

Dear Reader,

I completely forgot a few books we have enjoyed recently. We have listened to two by Lois Lowry–Anastasia Krupnik and the Birthday Ball. Both were fun and wholesome. The Anastasia ones are part of a series though I am always a little skeptical of series which manage to go on for  a while. We had also listened to the Gooney Bird Green series by her which is not only funny but also teaches a bit about poetry.

Nebby

Books We Have Been Reading

Dear Reader,

It has been a  while since I have posted anything on the books we have been reading or listening to.

We are preparing for  a big trip so I have stocked up on audiobooks from the library. I couldn’t find many long ones that looked good that we havent’ heard. And even among the shorter ones there are many we have heard before. But the younger kids don’t usually remember them well so I glad they will get a chance to hear them again. Here are some we have listened to recently or plan to listen to soon:

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Magic

Mary Poppins

Charlotte’s Web

Mr. Popper’s Penguins

I also want to reread the Little House on the Prairie books with my younger daughter. In her own reading she was been going through the Cobble Street Cousins by Cynthia Rylant. These are charming little books. But i like her Lighthouse Family series even better. Wonderful reading for younger girls.

My younger son is not much farther advanced in his reading. Too many books for boys this age (7 going on 8) are just horrible, either with occult type things (we do not actually mind all magic in books; it is more about how it is approached) or they are just in the gross-out genre. Some of the best we have found for him are the Dick King-Smith books and the Thornton Burgess books along the line of “Mrs. Peter Rabbit” and “Billy the Mink.” (We have also read his Animal Book and Bird Book but they are not easy reading for beginners.) The chapters in the Burgess books are a great length for a reluctant 7yo boy.

The older kids can be tougher. My older son has been reading lots of books by Lloyd Alexander which I like. My older daughter has been reading the Gilda Jones series which is okay, but far from fine literature. She went through a lot of the Anne of Green Gables books too.

In read alouds, we just finished a shorter book “Robbut” by Robert Lawson in which a dissatisfied rabbit tries out different tails. I look forward to reading more by him. We are currently reading “Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter” by Astrid Lindggren, the author of the Pippi Longstocking books. It too is a wonderful find.

That’s it for us. What are you reading these days?

Nebby

Sanctification through Motherhood

Dear Reader,

I have long thought that motherhood is one of the most sanctifying things we can go through. Not that motherhood in itself makes one holy, but for God’s people it acts as a refining fire, purging us of our self-centeredness. From the outset, one has to cede control of one’s own body. And then there is the loss of sleep, the not being able to do what you want when you want.

Too often in our society, we try to fight all this. I don’t think a mother need give up her own personhood. I don’t think all her dreams should be wrapped up in her children. But too often we focus on having “me” time.  And we bemoan what we are losing rather than looking at what we may be gaining–patience, a focus on someone other than ourselves, a greater humility about our appearances, an ability to do what we have to do (think dirty diapers) even when it is not what we want to do. And perhaps above all, a greater understanding of what it means to love someone who is imperfect, as our Father loves us.

As my children get older, a lot of the things I have been forced to do are no longer so pressing. But I think it is important to remember the lessons learned and not to revert to a place where it is all about me again.

Nebby

Happy Reformation Day!

Dear Reader,

Happy Reformation Day! It’s a good day for remembering what God has done in our lives personally and in the life of His church. Here’s some of what He has been doing in our lives recently:

-My son’s headaches continue to improve. Not always as fast as I like but each little step forward is a promise that God is still in control and He is working it out.

-We got 4 inches of snow saturday night (in October!). But because we did, we ended up taking ym husband’s car to church. And because we did that, he was able to go pick up an immigrant family and bring them to church in one trip because his car seats one more than mine does. Funny how God works things, isn’t it?

-I ”met” (in cyber space only so far) another homeschooling family with a child with type 1 diabetes. Her son really wanted to take a lego class my friend is hosting but she was going to have to say no because of the D and she couldn’t be there to watch out for him. But since my daughter is in the class and I can watch him too, he can do the class.

What has God been doing in your life recently?

Nebby

Halloween Thoughts

Dear Reader,

Last year I posted a lot on why we don’t celebrate Halloween so I am not doing that again this year. But I d have some thoughts that have struck me this year.

A number of things this year have made me wonder why others do bother.

First there is the candy. All I have heard from other mothers is complaints. How much their kids eat. How they sneak it away and throw it away after a few days. How wound up their kids get on the sugar.

And then there is the evil aspect. Halloween-celebrators seem to be aware of this, but they just choose to ignore it. For instance, we got our yearly flyer today announcing the neighborhood Halloween parade. And asking that each household contribute money for extra police protection for our property and children. If this holiday is so wonderful, why am I being asked to pay for police protection??

A different sort of thought is about what I do find bothersome in Halloween. Another om at church today was telling me that they don’t mind using somewhat scary decorations that er real things like bats and spiders but they avoid the made-up stuff like zombies. Now, on one hand, I think, don’t teach your little girls (girls are what she has) that bats and spiders are scary. They need not be and they are both wonderful for mosquito control. On the other hand, I think that it is not zombies and made-up things that bother me but real things. Real really evil things like those who week to practice witchcraft and black magic. Zombies, mummies, vampires and such don’t bother me as much as Ouija boards and tarot cards.

And those are my thoughts on Halloween.

Nebby

One Brief Thought on Evolution

Dear Reader,

So I don’t want to get into a big discussion of creationism versus evolution in this post (and everything in between). Perhaps in another post. My own position is still somewhat ambivalent or perhaps I should say in flux.

But I had one thought today that I wanted to share. I was reading an article on various dinosaur fossils that have been found and the scientists’ theories about them and all the animals that may have come in between. And I thought, “this is really cool.” For instance, this article (in the magazine BBC Knowledge, by the way) said that the first birds may have had 4 wings instead of two. Wouldn’t that be cool to see? Maybe that specific bit is not true, but when I think of all the kinds of creatures that we know God has made, and all the kinds He may have made, and how (I believe) He rejoices in His creation, I want it to be true. Maybe it’s not the best reason for believing anything, but I’d really like to believe in a  world in which all these fantastical creatures had at some time existed.

I know there are various explanations for dinosaur fossils even among those who call themselves strict 6-day creationists. One of the first ones I heard was that the creatures never lived but God placed their remains in our earth, perhaps to test our faith. But this I cannot accept. It seems too deceptive. I don’t think our God works that way. And more than that, He does delight in His creations, in all His marvelous creatures. I can’t see Him making them just to be bones and never to live.

Nebby

The Smurfs

Dear Reader,

On a completely frivolous topic, why are the smurfs supposed to be good? My husband has my kids watching the old cartoon from when we are little (I think there was a new movie recently but we haven’t seen it). The smurfs are clearly supposed to be all good whereas Gargamel is bad. But I can’t help wondering why.

The first time we tried the smurfs we had to stop watching them because my younger son, who might have been 5 or so at the time, loved Grouchy Smurf too much and went around saying “I hate” everything for weeks. But so many of the smurfs exemplify bad things–vanity, laziness, grumbling, overeating, self conceit. Some are innocuous but quite a number of the main ones just have very blatant faults. And yet we are supposed to think these are the “good” guys in their world. We have allowed too many things which used to be sins to be down-graded or even to become positives–pride and self-esteem come to mind.

And that’s my frivolous vent.

Nebby

Psalm 6: Our Analysis

Dear Reader,

This week in our homeschool we continued our study of Hebrew poetry by analyzing a selection from Psalm 6 (for a little background see this post). Here is the text we were working with:

Lord, how long in your anger will you reprove me?

and   how long in your wrath will you chasten me?

Be gracious to me, Lord, for bereaved am I;

Heal me,                Lord, for terrified are my bones;

And my soul is terrified greatly.

But, You, Lord, how long?

Return,    Lord, deliver my soul;

Save me for the sake of your loving-kindness.

For there is in death no remembrance of you;

In the pit who will praise you?

[Psalm 6:1-6; my translation]

Once again, I have tried to be as literal to the Hebrew as possible and to keep its word order when possible. When the same word is used more than once, for example “terrified”, I have translated it the same way so this comes across in English.

If you have followed these posts, I hope that you, like my children, are becoming adept at seeing at least the most obvious parallels. It should be noted that the original Hebrew text had no capitalization, verse divisions or punctuation. I have tried, however, in my translations to use punctuation and line divisions in such a way as to make the parallelism and the meaning of the poem more obvious.

The first thing we saw in this psalm is that the first two lines have clearly parallel. “How long” is in both. “in your anger” corresponds to “in your wrath” and “will you reprove me” to “will you chasten me?” The children quickly noted that “how long” also appears in the sixth line. This serves to draw the psalm together and give it more unity. But it also emphasizes what is foremost in the psalmist’s heart–which is this plaintive cry to God: “How long??” In our times of greatest distress, I think this is often the case. Our prayers become the simplest, often a meer cry to God of “how long” or “why.”

Lines three through 5 form a second section. Lines three and four more closely parallel each other. “Be gracious to me” corresponds to “heal me.” Then they both have the vocative “Lord,” and then “for bereaved am I” parallels “for terrified are my bones.” It is hard to find a synonym for “I”, isn’t it? But here the psalmist does so by using a part (my bones) for the whole (I). The fifth line parallels the latter part of lines 3 and 4. It does not contain an element to correspond to   “heal me” or “Lord.” This I think emphasize the psalmist’s focus on his own distress. As does his use of the word “terrified” again. Hebrew has a lot of words for distress or to be terrified. There was certainly no reason for the psalmist to repeat this word. I think the fact that he does shows us that this word is what first comes to his mind when he thinks of his situation. There is also the added “greatly” to emphasize his condition. As a side note, I would not make too much of the word “soul” here. It is my best translation in this context of the Hebrew nephesh. Hebrew does not have as Greek does the concept of a soul apart from the body. Nephesh in other contexts may be translated as “self”, “life”, or even “throat.”

Lines seven ane eight also form a parallel pair. “Deliver my soul” corresponds to “save me” (again “me” and “my soul” are just two ways of saying “me” without having to be too repetitive). The first part of line seven “return, Lord” is balanced out by the addition in line 8 of “for the sake of your loving-kindness.” This is a mouthful in English. It is not so much in Hebrew. What I have translated “loving-kindness” is the Hebrew word hesed which is usually taken to refer to God’s covenant love, that ism God’s love which He bears to His people because of His covenant with them. Now that would be a mouthful!

Finally, lines nine and ten are parallel. “in death” corresponds to “in the pit” and “no remembrance of you” parallels “who will praise you?”

I see this portion of psalm 6 in tw sections. The first six lines focus on the psalmist’s state, bounded by and culminating in his cry in line six “how long??!” The second part calls on God to help and gives reasons why he should do so. In the eighth line, His loving-kindness, that is His covenant, is invoked. In the last two lines, God is called on to act for the sake of His own glory and praise, for in death there are none to praise Him.

One observation my children had is that there are  a lot of “I”s, “me”s, “you”s, and “LOrd”s in this selection. And I think this is a wonderful point. We have seen that the psalmist is calling to mind God’s covenant which establishes the relationship between the Lord and His people. So too these “I”s and “you”s emphasize the relationship between the psalmist and the Lord. The psalmist asks for help and expects God to help because they have a relationship. Because he is counted among God’s people.

I am impressed with how quickly my somewhat young children seem to be able tp pick up on a psalm and make good observations.

Please feel free to share and observations you make too.

Nebby

Siblings Fighting: What’s Normal?

Dear Reader,

So I have 4 kids, two girls and two boys. The boys are 3 years apart. And I would say, I have said many times, that most of their interactions end in fighting. Though in our defense, this is a little like saying you found a lost item in the last place you looked, It is the last place because when you find it, you stop looking. Similarly, my boys can at times play legos for hours together in their room. But unless I call them for dinner at the right time, the end is often a squabble.

I began thinking more about this recently when a friend commented to me that it is too bad my boys can’t get along. Which of course rubbed me the wrong way. I wouldn’t really say that fight more than other brothers. Now my friend only sees them in situations where her boys are also present so there is always an added element. Plus she is only going to hear me talk about the negatives. I don’;t think I complain about them too much but there is never a context to say “Oh, my boys played so wonderfully together today.”

My own brothers are less than 2 years apart in age. They are older than I and by the time I have memories of their interactions, they really didn’t interact. They are very different people and they didn’t get along well as older kids, though my mother tells me they were best friends when they were little.

I guess I am just wondering if I am justifying something that isn’t normal. So if you have 2 boys close in age, I would love to hear from you. Do they wrestle constantly? (Mine do; it starts out consensual but always ends badly.)  Do they squabble a lot? What is normal? Or perhaps not normal, but healthy?

Nebby

For Those Who Don’t Do Halloween

Dear Reader,

This is not going to be a post on why we don;t celebrate Halloween. I did those last year (here and here). What I am wondering is how you explain your position to people. It is only the beginning of October and I have already been a bystander in a few conversations about kids’ Halloween costumes. And I dread being asked what my kids will be. Because then I have to say we don’t celebrate Halloween and I have to say why. And my problem is I don’t know how to say it in an unoffensive way. I truly believe Halloween is a matter of conscience. I don’t think it is inherently wrong for Christians to participate in it. But it is wrong for our family.

I don’t really have a problem with people on our church. Though some celebrate Halloween, they are aware others don;t and usually don’t require much explanation. And I don’t worry so much about complete strangers like those chatty cashiers who always ask kids these questions. The problem is with other friends or acquaintances at say a park day. These are people  want to get to know or at least be a good witness to in my manner. And the context is usually that they have been raving about their kids’ costumes. So how do I say right after this that we find Halloween, well, evil?

I asked my husband how he would answer if one of his co-workers asked why we don’t do Halloween, and he said, “Well, I would say that Halloween is about too much candy and the occult and we aren’t really into either of those things.” I love that answer. But I still don’t think I can say it to moms who clearly are psyched up about Halloween without causing offense.

So, I need ideas. How do I present our position without offending those who do celebrate Halloween??

Nebby