Cherry Blossoms

(B&W post-processing done on the computer.)

Rambly Post About Miss M Growing Up

It occurred to me this week that Miss M has starting calling cats "kitty" instead of "meow-meow" and it makes me realize how much she's growing. My first impulse is to be sad at how quickly her babyhood is disappearing, but I also remember certain stages that I couldn't wait for her to grow out of- - like getting into everything. We've been trying positive/grace-based discipline more so with her - we've always done it somewhat with the boys, but we always reserved spankings as a last resort in our toolbox of parenting tactics. We've been trying not to use any spanking at all with Miss M.

Miss M is more spirited, more determined, louder, and more persistent than any of her brothers ever were, and I know her Daddy sometimes wonders if our failure to spank her has made her that way. But I don't think so, she was different from the day she was born. I remember her laying next to me just minutes after she was born and she didn't want to nurse! She just wanted me to pat her on the back. She was also the only one who, at four months old, even though she was afraid of the vacuum cleaner, made herself scoot forward and touch it. She's the first of our children to have tantrums (actually melt-downs; they tend to happen when she's tired).

When she was one, she was into everything. Any cabinet door left open, she'd be into. Anything left within reach, she'd grab - we had to learn to put our books and papers way up on the table, and as she grew her reach grew, too, so we had to put stuff farther and farther in, or up higher. As soon as I'd walk away from the computer she'd start pounding on the keyboard. We'd tell her she couldn't do that and remove her and she'd laugh and run away and look for an opportunity to do it again. Her daddy wondered if a good swat might teach her that we were serious. But I remember when L, who is nine now, was this age, I had just read To Train Up a Child by the Pearls. I tried it; I picked one problem area and decided to use their method of lightly swatting his hand with a little switch from a willow tree every time he tried to play with the dirty dishes while I was loading the dishwasher. I did this for a couple of months and he never did learn, he was just like Miss M: as soon as I'd give him an opening, he'd be into the dishes again. The little swats were unpleasant to him, but they didn't really deter him. He finally just grew out of it and got interested in other toys. And that seems to be happening with Miss M, too. She responds better now when we tell her to move away from something (not always, but at least she seems to understand now that we aren't playing a fun game!) and she's finding more interesting things to do.

So, sadly, she's getting bigger, growing up, although some of the more difficult challenges are getting easier. Sometimes I tell her, 'You're getting so big!" and she'll invariably tell me, "I not big, I little." :)

Contradictory Readings on Wrath

I've been reading The Attributes of God (by Arthur W. Pink) for school this term. I can't say that I love it, but the theology seemed fine until I ran into this quote, in the chapter on the Wrath of God:

'If we rejoice not "at the remembrance of His holiness" (Psa. 97:12), if we rejoice not to know that in a soon-coming Day God will make a most glorious display of His wrath by taking vengeance upon all who now oppose Him, it is proof positive that our hearts are not in subjection to Him, that we are yet in our sins, and that we are on the way to everlasting burnings.'

We should rejoice in the justice of God, and in the fact that all things will one day be put right, but nowhere that I know does the Bible call for us to rejoice in God's destruction of sinners. (Does God Himself rejoice when He wreaks vengeance upon His perverted creation?) Most importantly, the passage seems to be basing the issue of salvation on this one theological point. Not good.

But the stranger part came when I was reading One Blood (Ken Ham et al.) two days later (another book I can't say I love):

'All humans are sinners: "For we have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).
Sin is transgressing God's law and includes such things as lying, lusting, cheating, deceit, anger, evil thoughts, and more.'

I was startled to see anger listed among the other sins. They may be taking their cue from the Bible ("...hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies..." - Gal. 5:20) but just plain "anger" among the others is misleading, particularly in a chapter intended for non-Christians. And how do they reconcile that with Psalm 4:4, "Be angry and do not sin"?

What's strange, though, is that the two passages are contradictory. God cannot be a God of wrath if wrath is a sin. (The way I see it, anger--like hatred--is a part of our character that was made in the image of God. It has a right purpose (we should be angry when we hear about evil deeds) but it is too often used wrongly.)

So I Was Right All Along

(Could I be anything else?)




Ok, nevermind that question :D.

I took the Myers-Briggs personality test last night (see also MerryK's post about it at Beth Spera in Domino). I am an INTJ--which stands for Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging. Some other INTJs it lists are C.S. Lewis and Mr. Darcy--the two people, real and fictional, that I identify with the most. Other INTJs of note (as it lists) are Augustus Caesar, Hannibal, Jane Austen, and Gandalf. I feel that I am in good company. :)

Clouds

We had some nice clouds here yesterday evening. I took quite a few photos, and this is the best of them.


But take a look at these (not mine :-):

They're lenticular clouds (Latin lenticularis, "little lentil"). Here's the link (scroll to the bottom for a larger version of this picture). And here is a very nice explanation (at, of all places, a site about an alternative theory to the Big Bang).

Book Questionaire

I was tagged by MerryK of Beth Spera in Domino to do this book quiz.


1. How many hours a day do you spend reading?
One or two, not including school.

2. How fast do you read?
Faster than I should.

3. What is your favorite book?
I could not choose, not even for ready money.

4. Who is your favorite author?
C.S. Lewis.

5. What is your favorite action/adventure novel?
Hmmm. Ivanhoe, I suppose, but I don't usually think of it as an action/adventure novel. If not Ivanhoe then Kidnapped, though I enjoyed To Have and To Hold too.

6. What is your favorite mystery novel?
Sophie's World, if it counts. I haven't read many mystery novels.

7. What is your favorite romance novel?
The Pilgrim's Regress. (Yes, I'm kidding. Read the Preface to Pilgrim's Regress about the word "romantic" and you'll get the joke.) Seriously, Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility. Or maybe Persuasion.

8. What is your favorite character novel?
Does Ivanhoe count? Or A Christmas Carol? If not I would probably pick one of Jane Austen's.

9. What is your favorite fantasy/sci-fi novel?
The Lord of the Rings. Within subgenres: Lewis's Space Trilogy (the supernatural), The Enchanted Castle (magic), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (time travel), and From Earth to Moon or Journey to the Center of the Earth or something else of Verne's (sci-fi).

10. What is your favorite history book?
The Everlasting Man if it counts; otherwise Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples. Arguing About Slavery is good too (many thanks to the DeputyHeadmistress, if she's reading this :-).

11. What is your favorite biography?
John Adams by Catherine Drinker Bowen.

12. What is your favorite other non-fiction book?
Mere Christianity or one of Lewis's other non-fiction books.

13. What is your favorite play?
If musicals are included, The Pirates of Penzance. Otherwise Much Ado About Nothing and maybe Henry V. Oh, and Love's Labors Lost.

14. What is your favorite of the genres mentioned in questions 5-12?
Fantasy.

15. What is your favorite type of character?
Someone noble and honorable, like Aragorn, Sir Gareth, and Mr. Knightley.

16. If you could host a party with 7 literary characters, who would they be and why?
Could I please have more than one party? Pleeease? Nine or ten should be enough:

• Mole, Ratty, Badger (if he'd come), Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, and someone--perhaps Benjamin Bunny or Mrs. Tiggywinkle--from Beatrix Potter's books. It's really been too long since I read those. (I don't think I need answer the "why?".)
• Lizzie Bennett, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, Mr. Knightley, Colonel Brandon, Edward Ferrars, and Mr. Darcy (or perhaps Mr. Bingley, he'd be better company). Just think of the *dancing*!
• Peter, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie, Eustace Scrubb, Reepicheep, Puddleglum, and Jewel. Narnia is my first love in fantasy, and I still love it.
• Gerald, Mabel, Phyllis, Oswald, Alice, Noel, and perhaps Bobby for Phyllis's sake. (All from Nesbit's books.) All of them would be fun to know. I think I could talk to them almost as equals (save that they're immortals by-way-of-books).
• Irene, Curdie, Irene's grandmother Irene (all from The Princess and the Goblins), Diamond and the North Wind (At the Back of the North Wind), Alice (of Lewis Carroll's making), and Psyche (from Greek mythology, but more particularly from Till We Have Faces). Some more People I Should Like to Meet.
• Father Brown, Bilbo Baggins, Dr. Elwin Ransom, Dr. Dimble, Mr. MacFee (those last three are from That Hideous Strength), Uncle Digory (Professor Kirke) and Aunt Polly (Plummer). Such conversations we would have!
• Benedict and Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing), Wamba (Ivanhoe), the White Knight (Through the Looking Glass), Eilonwy (The Prydain Chronicles), Mr. Tilney (Northanger Abbey), and perhaps Psmith (of P.G. Wodehouse's making). Then just sit back and listen to the conversation.
• Aragorn, Eowyn, Robin Hood, Rebecca (from Ivanhoe), Wiglaf (from Beowulf), Sir Gareth, and Enid (from Arthurian legend). They're noble but still down-to-earth so you can talk to them.
• And maybe one more party with King Arthur, Sir Gawain, Fingolfin, Luthien (both from The Silmarillion), Hector, Achilles, and Helen (Menelaus's Helen). Not to meet them necessarily, but just to stand off to the side and gaze in awe.

Oh, I can really only have one party? Just one? Well, perhaps if I had to choose I would invite Lizzie (Pride and Prejudice), Wiglaf (Beowulf), Rebecca (Ivanhoe), Ratty (The Wind in the Willows), Professor Kirke (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), the White Knight (Through the Looking Glass), and Aslan. I think Lizzie and Rebecca would get along well. Wiglaf is the nobility--a bit foreign, perhaps, but sure to get along fine if Professor Kirke translated for him (Rebecca might even be able to speak to him directly if they both spoke Latin). Professor Kirke could provide intelligent conversation on historical, linguistic and literary topics. Ratty might enjoy discussing poetry with Professor Kirke and the White Knight. Lizzie, Rebecca, Wiglaf, and the White Knight could dance, though if the White Knight couldn't stop falling I might have to take his place and he could sing with Ratty. The White Knight, Ratty, and Lizzie together would make excellent conversation, and Aslan--well, Aslan is Aslan.

17. Do you like film adaptations of books? If so, which is your favorite? Which is your least?
Yes. Sense and Sensibility is my favorite. If I had a least favorite I have long since buried it under piles of mental dirt. (Not that any are perfect, except perhaps Sense and Sensibility.)

18. Who is your literary role ?
Aragorn.

19. Which literary house would you like most to live in?
Rivendell, or perhaps the house from the book I mention in question #26--I think it was called the House of the Hundred Chimneys. I wouldn't mind living in Bag-End either. How is it Tolkien built such good houses?

20. Which literary couple would you like most for parents?
Professor Bear and Aunt Jo (of Little Men) or perhaps Cecil and Margery Dimble (from That Hideous Strength).

21. Pick 3 literary characters you would like to have as siblings.
Lucy Pevensie (Narnia), Diamond (At the Back of the North Wind), and--oh, the third would be hard. Alice Bastable (The Treasure Seekers) or Mabel Prowse (The Enchanted Castle), maybe, or Arthur Denniston (That Hideous Strength).

22. Who is your favorite literary villain?
Morgoth (The Silmarillion) is hard to beat for pure evil. For favorites, I have always sympathized with De Bracy (from Ivanhoe).

23. Name a character that most people dislike, but that you do not. Why do you like them?
I would say Boromir or Susan (Pevensie), but it seems like a lot of people like them. Maybe Sir Kay the Seneschal? I hear the French ruined his character--like Tennyson did to Gawain in Idylls of the King.

24. Which minor character deserves a book all to themselves, in your opinion?
Adaon (from Prydain), like MerryK said. Or perhaps the pair Florismart and Flordelis, star-crossed lovers from Legends of Charlemagne. I think Wiglaf, from Beowulf, deserves a book, but it might not be a book worth reading.

25. Which character do you identify most with in literature?
Probably Mr. Darcy or one of Nesbit's eldest boys like Oswald Bastable and Gerald -----. But I think also (sometimes) Anne Elliot or Bilbo Baggins. Even Marianne Dashwood sometimes. (There are so many, and it depends so much on how I feel, that I cannot choose just one. The point of any good character is that we can and do identify with them.)

26. If you could go into a novel, which one would it be and why?
There was a book which Tolkien never finished (it sort of turned into The Silmarillion), in which Aelfwine the mariner in olden times sailed to a far-off island where lived the last of the elves, and there he heard poems and tales of the Elder Days and learned the history of the elves. That would be a fun book to get into. (What there is of the book are in Lost Tales volumes I and II. But don't expect a novel.)

27. Do you prefer hardback or paperback?
I'll have to agree with Merry on this one: paperback for reading, hardback for buying or displaying.

28. Do you like dustcovers?
You mean those things that slip up and down and up and down and on and off and finally fall off completely and you have to stop reading and open the book to the covers to put it back on?

29. Do you like introductions, forwards, afterwards, and appendices?
Yes. And prefaces and epilogues. Indexes, when provided, are indispensable.

30. Do you like reading literary criticism?
Sometimes.

31. Do you like new or used books? What about ex-library?
Yes.

32. Are you likely to buy new books without having read them, or would you buy a used copy (or check it out from the library) to see if it is good or not?
Buy a used copy, check it out from the library, or read the etext first. Sometimes such things cannot be done, and then I buy it new. Of course there are books, like Mere Christianity or Lord of the Rings, which are so good that you cannot have too many copies, new or otherwise. One for display, one to read at home, one to take with you, one to lend out...

33. Name 3 - 7 books that you rarely see on people's favorite book lists, that are high on your own.
Beowulf, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, That Hideous Strength.

34. Which is your least favorite book of those that are considered "classics"?
The Compleat Angler. Or is that not a classic? Then I should say David Copperfield or Oliver Twist.

35. Do you like books read aloud, or do you prefer silent reading?
Silent unless it's alliterative poetry. Then I have to read it aloud. (But see question #40, too.)

36. When you read, do you see things in your mind like a movie, or just in vague pictures?
Just in vague pictures. At rare intervals they come into focus.

37. Do you like to read in silence, or with backround noise/music?
Silence.

38. Can you read in the car without getting carsick?
For a few minutes. (I guess that's a "no" :P .)

39. Do you go to booksales?
Not often.

40. Name one literary quirk of yours.
Alliterative poetry gets read aloud, whether I'm reading to others or not. So do a lot of other poetry and plays, and even parts of some books (like The Silmarillion) that beg to be spoken.

Mystery Solved

Charlotte Mason wasn't able to pinpoint an exact definition of an idea:

"The nature, functions, and behaviour of ideas, and how ideas have power in their impact upon the cerebral hemisphere to make some sort of sensible impression––all this is matter as to which we are able only to make 'guesses at truth.' But this need not dismay us, for such other ultimate facts as sleep and life and death are equally unexplained." (Vol 3 pg 69)

But Miss M knows exactly what an idea is. When she asked for one this afternoon, she was pointing very emphatically at her brother's burrito. So there you have it. Charlotte Mason didn't know, but Miss M does: an idea is a bean and soy cheese burrito.

* * * *

[I think I actually figured out where that connection came from. Yesterday, after showing off her knowledge of the word idea, one of her brothers made a quesadilla. If you say them both together, quesadilla and idea, they do sound the same. And a burrito looks very much like a quesadilla.]

Two Items

I'm not much of a newsie kind of person, but these two incidents are coming up a lot in the circles I frequent.

Zachary Creighton was a missing 14 year old, he's been found and he's fine. But he refused to go home because he said his parents would beat him. So CPS went and removed 5 other children from the Creighton home. Now the Creighton's, instead of rejoicing over the safety of the missing child, are having to fight to get their children back. I read a bit from this blog, found by accident. There's a link to a video of the social workers taking the crying children for reasons they would not divulge, and a link to a newsletter by Jonathan Lindvall where he gives some details about what's going on. Apparently he knows the family.

And, some homeschoolers are moving their blogs from www.homeschoolblogger over a child abuse case. The mother was following the advice of Michael and Debi Pearl (No Greater Joy/To Train Up a Child) and beat her child to death. Related to that, many are calling for a ban of anyone who recommends or distributes their resources, and homeschoolblogger is an active supporter of the Pearls methods. Here's one blog that's gone. You can read more here or here. I'm not a Pearl supporter, but I'm not sure how I feel about a ban, either. For those looking for alternative blogging places, ATypicalHomeschool.net is offering free blogs for homeschoolers. (Gena Suarez of homeschoolblogger has posted and received comments on her own blog here.)

Hmmm. I'm doing a little research and it strikes me as odd that the cases I've read of recently about this kind of child abuse seem to be dealing with children who were adopted. Even Haleigh Poutre was adopted by her aunt. Due to attachment disorder and unknown emotional baggage carried into the relationship from the child's background, corporal punishment seems to be a bad idea with these children. But the problem seems to go way beyond a discipline issue.

The Life of the Mind is Sustained Upon Ideas

"I'd like some ideas, Mommy."

"Mommy, I want some ideas."

Miss M has been saying this all day. I have no idea where she got it from. I wonder what she has in mind when she thinks of 'ideas'? Does she think they're cookies??


Or maybe she's truly a child after Charlotte Mason's own heart, earnestly yearning for that true, pure food that's as important for the nourishment of young souls and minds as food is for the physical body. (Or maybe she's heard me quote CM too many times? LOL!)

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ .

"The life of the mind is sustained upon ideas; there is no intellectual vitality in the mind to which ideas are not presented several times, say, every day.... Every child gets many of these ideas by word of mouth, by way of family traditions, proverbial philosophy,––in fact, by what we might call a kind of oral literature. But, when we compare the mind with the body, we perceive that three 'square' meals a day are generally necessary to health, and that a casual diet of ideas is poor and meagre.... I should like to emphasize quantity, which is as important for the mind as the body; both require their square meals." [Charlotte Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, Vol 6 of her Home Education series, pg 25]

Hipy Papy Bthudth...

Thudthdy. Today is our blog's first birthday! We passed 7000 visitors today and this is our 293rd post. Please join us for celebration and cake, and thank you all for reading.

(Cake courtesy of MorgueFile images)