Hula on youtube.com

Here's a kahiko (ancient-style) hula on Youtube. The ladies are wearing long red skirts and black sleeveless tops, and they're from pretty far away.

and a modern hula to the song Ke Aluala. I love this song! Knee-length white dresses, long sleeves. Too bad the sound acts weird.

God is Like . . .

Miss M wanted me to read her a book. She picked it (the Little Golden Book of Prayers) and sat down and said, "No, I'll read it. First you read it." So I did, and then it was her turn. She opened the book and began:

"This girl is praying, and there's a very dangerous . . ." (I could see her grasping for the most dangerous thing she could come up with) "a TABLE!" I guess it's early, the cobwebs still aren't all out yet. Next page. "God is like . . . a butterfly."

This reminds me of people who won't believe in the God of the Bible because "a loving God wouldn't . . ." or "I just don't think God could . . ." or "I just don't see how a merciful God would . . ." So instead, they make up their concept of God. I googled the phrase "I think God is like" and here are some I found:

I think God is like abstract art.
I think god is like Yoda.
I think God is like the fiery yellow-orange-red power that comes out of the big explosion they call the Big Bang.
I think God is like a little kid, fascinated by this new toy he has: a little doll house with little dolls that he can play with. No real implications, no consequences for what he does with these dolls, whether that be playing dress-ups or throwing them in the bin when they get ragged and worn out.
I think God is like my kitten. I love my kitten, but she isn’t real anymore.
And then Miss M's "I think God is like a butterfly."

And then I found this, which is the truth:
"It doesn't really matter what I think God is like. What matters is what is He really like."

Hula

Miss M's current obsession is hula - I have some kahiko (ancient chant style) big time competitions that I ordered online and she's been asking to watch those. Her newest thing is that, as she dances (with a few ballet moves mixed in), she chants, like the dancers she sees on the DVD. She stops mid-dance, holds her arms out, and yells out gibberish. In the real dances, they introduce and end dances with a Hawaiian phrase - I know they end with a line that starts, "He inoa . . ." and it says the name of the dance they just did (but that's all I know!) And now she wants me to be the kumu hula, the hula teacher who sits on the stage and beats the ipu. I have nothing gourd-shaped, so we're using a flashlight.




Can you see the resemblance? No? Well, I guess you have to really stretch the imagination . . .

Sleeping

It's Been a Hectic Week . . .

We started school back up on Jan 1 after two weeks off. I know, I know, the holiday and all, but our AO schedule is Mon-Fri, and if we take one day off, we usually end up taking the whole week off - and, last year, that left us with a two-week summer vacation.

We took it slow and easy on Monday, no math or copywork, just the books on the schedule. And we've taken all week to ease ourselves back into it. But it's really hard to get back to routine after two weeks, and I'm back on the raw diet without cheating and off the caffeine, and that's taken its toll on me - I've had a hard time dragging myself out of bed and I've been sleeping in until 11! Just keeping up with meals, school schedule, Series paraphrase, Cloud of Witness daily entries, has been all I could manage (plus chasing the toddler!)

So, I haven't had much to say, or time to say it.

I'm reading the last of my Stacks Books Challenge book (The Iliad for Boys and Girls) aloud, so it's taking longer - I was able to get the others read in bed within a few days.

Tomorrow we take the Christmas decorations down. The pies are gone, cookies are gone, See's chocolates are gone, gifts are put away, Nutcracker is over, holiday schedule has been replaced with school schedule, Christmas songs replaced with hymns - it really feels like Christmas is over.

The next thing to look forward to is the CM conference in North Carolina in June.

Christmas is Over

I'm going to miss Miss M's rendition of Jingle Bells:

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, all the way to London, oh what fun it is to ride . . ."

I think she confused it with the Mother Goose rhyme "See saw Sacaradown which is the way to London town."

Stacks Book Challenge

I finished Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge. Mama Squirrel thought I might be disappointed with it, and Tim read it one day when I set it aside and said it had voodoo in it, so I decided not to read it aloud to the younger boys as I had planned.

The book was very enjoyable, you're plunged right into the story from the first page. The kids aren't perfect, but they're interesting and likeable. Tim commented that at the beginning, it seems like a Saturdays book by Elizabeth Enright, but it evolves into a Nesbit book along the way. He was right, it seems pretty straightforward at first, but subtly becomes fantastic (as in fanciful and unbelievable). But I still liked it. It reminded me of The Little White Horse in the sense that good overcame evil and all the loose ends were tied up into one blissful happy ending and everyone lives happily ever after forever and ever. I like that.

I also read More All-of-a-Kind Family and Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family. More AOAKF was a lot like the first book, light and enjoyable and ending with a wedding. Ella was disappointing. The writing seemed choppy, as if it was written in short little sentences for second graders (were the first two like that? I don't remember them being like that) but the subject matter - a girl on the verge of womanhood choosing between a glamorous career and a mundane family life with the man she loves - is suited for readers old enough for real sentences. And it lacked the charm of the first two, maybe because it wasn't about little children and their antics, but about an older girl making a big decision.

I've read my five books and then some, but I still plan to read The Iliad for Boys and Girls before my challenge is done. It was one of the books I originally listed (I listed six instead of five).

The Maid upon the Road

He:
Come with me, my pretty, and give me thy love
And I'll promise thee love and the world beside:
I'll tie up thy tresses with ribbons y-wove
And one day thou wilt be my bride.

She:
Swiftly indeed thou wouldst give me thy love,
But I'll not be so swift, and I'll not give thee mine,
For another fair maiden I've seen by the road,
Walking slow near the stream where the willows twine:

She sang: "I gave him my heart and my love,
And he promised me love and the world beside;
But I now walk alone in the willow-grove
And he seeks after another bride."

So I'll not be giving my heart or my love
To just any who ask, or who promise me fine:
For the man who desires my heart must prove
That he's worthy to keep it, ere I give him mine.

The Message of Christmas

Is joy to the world, right?

Another Birthday

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him,
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign.
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty
Jesus Christ.