Snowfalling Christmas at home

I have a dog waiting to be let out of out his crate, and I'm still here using the high speed in ER.  He will just take a nap.  Lots of busyness tomorrow.  Our two services will be a great celebration-- and the community will knit all the holes together from the tribulations of the last year.
There seems to be some struggles in our lives yet.  Everything however,  is better now that we are up here in the North.  Yet...there is a ways a remnant of old struggles.  During the year, I focus on the postive, but  in this time of darkeness before Christmas, the self-examination is almost akin to Lent!!!


The miracle is still the miracle not matter what human puffery

Tucker , Tree Chickens-and a bad attitude about Halloween.

It's Halloween.  Who cares?

Halloween parade circa 1969-70

I just am not into it this year. I think that it is loosing its verve in general.    I remember when--- well blah blah blah.  Halloweens in the 60's and 70's in West Chicago Il--    I don't want to go there.  It was ok-- but lately I have just don't have time for nostalgia.   I really wasn't into it last year either.  Our teeth are rotting and we are all too fat-- so eat an apple.  Oh wait-- I remember bobbing for apples on Halloween with the neighborhood kids in the basement at Pomeroy st.  EEEK  --its' happening.  I am waxing nostalgic!!  Maybe it will melt like our brief snow encounter this week.   The apples were a mess and highly unsanitary-- No chlorine in the buckets. Yes- I"m the one with the flute.

I have been trying to establish a scholarly schedule in anticipation of the starting school in January.  Just so that I have that in place-- and the house hold doesn't go into shock. I'm perusing some anatomy and physiology books etc.  Just to get my head in reading stuff like that.  Shocking how boring this sounds----

Tucker, The Flammbeau Flyer

Tucker the Flammbeau Flyer, is definitely  not a dog who needs a job. Everything becomes a toy-- and he wants to play constantly.  It is fun to see him amuse himself with chunk of carrot for 30 minutes!!! 




Our late Zena really needed a job.  She was on the job constantly.    Tucker  is a party animal-- a big-hearted silly snuggle-bug of a dog.

Zena, The Diva

Tucker doesn't seem to want to guard anything. However he does becomes unglued by the "evil" (his word) squirrel who eats at our bird feeder.


His crazy about birds.  He has flushed several winged creatures out of the weeds in the back yard.  I think he has the "soft mouth" described by people who hunt birds.  He once caught a Mourning Cloak Butterfly in his mouth, and was so surprised when he opened his mouth and it flew out!!!

Pomeranian Gentlemen Friend

Tucker contributes to our morning ritual by persuading my Pomeranian Gentleman friend to become vertical,  While I am usually flying around getting breakfast staged etc in my slippers -- in no state to indulge him for even a short "walkies,"-- he stealthily "barks" sotto voce agitato  at the bedroom door--.  When the task is accomplished and shoes are being put on for the "walkies" Tucker seems to get his teeth involved in the shoe process.  He likes to supervise this process which can be really exciting.

 

We have started calling the Pileated Woodpeckers "Tree Chickens"  as we call the squirrels "Tree Rats"  There is a an especially robust Tree Chicken that appeared at the feeder this morning.   He really loved the Suet-- I think almost more than the insects he gets when he pecks the day-lights out of the pines!!! Tucker lost all composure-- became unglued, delaminated etc....Needless to say the Tree Chicken retreated to a nearby tree.


So that's it for today. It's Monday EEEEK

Things to be glad for-- Henry HIggins was not allowed to procreate.

So I'm signing up for school - start in January.  Trying to get my health managed and wondering as Eliza Doolittle did:  " What's to become of me?"
                                      I think she was a bit despondent when she said that-- can't really blame her-- Henry Higgins?  I really am glad he wasn't allowed to procreate.

When I ask "Whats to become of me?"  I giggle and imagine all sorts of things.  Well---- I do know what is going to happen somewhat-- I'm going to transform my BA into a BS and sit for the RHIA exam.   Bureaucracy will never be the same after I get involved. 

It really sounds like a cooking project with let's say  alphabet pasta.  

 AHEM....



Simmer my Bachelors of Music Education slowly for Two years (eek) while gradually adding an peculiar epice fine (Math, Statistics, Anatomy Physiology etc) wrapped in an internet cheese cloth bag  and a nice fresh beaker of alphabet pasta while reciting various and sundry parts of the IDC9 code book.  When done serve to to Rita, Henry, Imogene and Arvid (RHIA)  who will then examen your dog who will sit for them thereby taking the RHIA exam

Sounds like fun.
EEK

Jesus said nothing about sexuality-

Jesus said nothing about sexuality-- that's how much it mattered to him! He preached a radical welcome. If there is love between two people where is the problem?
Paul in addressing sexuality was talking about the ancient Greek practice of pederasty (an older man taking a young boy and "teaching" him things)-- Paul wanted that to stop.
All the stuff in Deuteronomy--Those rules were mostly to get the Hebrews to stop acting like the neighboring worshippers (who worship various local gods) and having sex with the priests and the idols in the temple.
My husband Dan is a Pastor, and Bible Scholar--he can read Greek and Hebrew. He urges everyone to think of the Old Testament as a "family album"-- with some good times and bad times. We can learn things from the Old Testament, but Jesus came and turned everything upside down -- We are New Testament people. 

Jossy-Bird has flown very far away.

Jocelyn

My Jocelyn has boarded a plane for the first time and is now munching a sandwich with her father at the Savannah airport.   It is exciting to have to travel like this.  I'm sad that I couldn't take her to see SCAD.  (The Savannah College of Art and Design.)
www.scad.edu
Travel to anyplace other than
There and Back Again to Illinois
will not be possible for us quite some time.  I am very good however at experiencing things vicariously! 

She tours the school tomorrow, and then does some site seeing.  Flies home again on Sunday! 

Just how did you stab yourself with your circular needles?

"A clean house is the sign of a Squandered Life."
So now you know.
If you visit me, you might need a dust mask. 

But then you might like the piano, and all its friends--the squeakbox and the harpy thing--the Dobergirl who puts on a big show, the flocks of deer at the feeder, the godzilla sized woodpeckers a eating suet on the deck, and my Pomeranian GentlemanFriend who is either playing guitar or FalloutThree.
Kitchen table is a workshop.  We eat around what ever is being worked on.  Things regularly boil over on the stove and things that get burned, are diplomatically called "French." Daughter ensconced on the computer drawing drawing drawing...
Yarn everywhere--Somehow the laundry gets folded, but I don't know why or how.  I have no memory of doing it.
After teaching the squeak box for 30 years, moving on to more knitting and medical coding (Large Terrifying Chord)---.  So that I can tell insurance companies just how you stabbed your self with your circular needles.
Where's the Ketchup?

King Uzziah- My favorite Bible quote

Isaiah 6 (New International Version, ©2010)

 

Isaiah 6

Isaiah’s Commission

KIng Uzziah

Seraphim

 ¹ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:    “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
   the whole earth is full of his glory.”
 ⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
 ⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

 ⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
 ⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
   And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
******************************************************


I love the imagery-- the seraphim with the tongs---


I often picture a Dean Martin kind of a guy, in a shadowy night club with a drink and a cigarette, reciting this seated at a table with a jazz piano in the background....In the year King Uzziah died....

Oh well, off to church.... My pomeranian Gentleman friend is singing a Steve Earl song today...  it will be fantastic!

Geez, what happened here? Sewing machines, tubs of fabric--a Government of Thread

Deranged

I finally could stand it anymore.  There was thread every where-- errant scraps of fabric- capricious strands of yarn--the sewing machine and serger screaming "Please Cover Me-- I'm getting too dusty!  You'll be sorry..." and too many pins menacing those who dare to tread with bare feet in our bedroom--uhh I guess that would be me and my Pommeranian GentlmenFriend.

Pomeranian GentlmanFriend

I did get bring some order-- all the molecules were so please that

I had to take pictures.  So here  it is before and after.

After Therapy

No one visits us expcept  you my readers-- so feel priveliged!!!!
Note to Caren---- see I did include my "before" picture
eek

Seed Catalog Time

I'm just in the mood for summer, even though there is snow on the ground and I'm still having fun with that.  Sounds a bit conflicted....
But February is starts my Seed Catalog Time.  The time when you look at all the color things you could plant in the spring.  I don't really grow anything anymore,but this has always been the time that I have planned Vacation Bible School, signed up my kids for Girls Scout camp,  and planned out just what the summer might look like.  July seems far away.  But it really isn't.  So I have my "Seed Catalogs" out....who knows what I'll get up to.

Purple Ratz dream of Harleys-vroom vroom

Purple Ratz 

who would really like to be riding a Harley are on  

their way to their new friend in the Pacific Northwest! 

Sputnik? Let's not....

Sputnik.  

Our educational system is broken because it needs to be changed.  Nothing Broke it-- it simply has never worked.  

Sputnik!   Our educational system is sad because there is no passion.  

True motivation for learning come from with in, 

not from outside threats.  

 
Sputnik?   

 Our educational system  fails because it does not produce truly educated people. 

Students learn to manipulate the system, and live with spiritual hollowness. 

Sputnik.........

The answer is not Sputnik. 

Sputnik caused a panic that droves us as a culture into the craziness and unrest of the 60's. 

People were tested from all walks of life to see if they were the next undiscovered genius. 

There was a panic 

resulting in a generation of students 

who loved the word "correct."  

 They could get all the answers right--  

but felt the hollow meaninglessness of their lives.  

They found a voice in the music coming out of England. 

So that was good.

That and the Blitz gave us Rock and Roll.

But did we really have to have this "Panic?"

I think the crisis in youth is all spirit oriented.   

• They need to feel.  
• They need to have meaning. 

  By 3rd grade the excitement about the world is disappearing.  

Their eyes become glassy.  

I'm not sure how this solution  looks-- how to get kids what is lacking-- 

but it is not another Sputnik moment. 

Let's not go there.

Our kids have grown up too fast-- my generation grew up too fast.  Life Long Kindergarten  is a program at MIT to train teachers to preserve the creativity present in really young children.  As  a homeschooler I was an "Unschooler" --based on the teachings of John Holt.  My 3 kids are very different than others their age.  I did integrate them into public school when I judged the time right.  With each one, parents and teachers have asked me how I got kids like this.  What did I do?  What was my magic method.  I read the works of  John Holt  and David Elkind

In 1976, John Holt published Instead of Education: Ways to Help People Do Things Better, whose conclusion called for a "Children's Underground Railroad" to help children escape compulsory schooling

Holt's philosophy was simple:
"... the human animal is a learning animal; we like to learn; we are good at it; we don't need to be shown how or made to do it. What kills the processes are the people interfering with it or trying to regulate it or control it."

David Elkind

His groundbreaking books — The Hurried Child,[1] The Power of Play[2] and Miseducation[3] — informed early childhood education professionals of the possible dangers of "pushing down" the elementary curriculum into the very early years of a child's life. By doing so, he argued, teachers and parents alike could lapse into developmentally inappropriate instructional and learning practices that may distort the smooth development of learning. He is associated with the belief of decline of social markers.


Now the Packers versus the Steelers!!!!

DNC, Bassoons and coffee

Saturday Morning  Blog

So here I am blogging.  There has been altogether too much Bassoon in the air.  I think Miss Dog must have invited it in.   Fog is clearing, thanks to Java.

Mr. Migraine

Rossini Quartets  wow-  listening to Sonic Tap while filling out the survey sent to me by the Democratic National Committee and trying to persuade Herr Migraine to lodge elsewhere.   I was advised by my Pomeranian GentlemenFriend that I shouldn't bother because they just want money--The DNC not Herr Migraine.

Pomeranian GentlemanFriend

As I am reading "Home Grown Democrat" by Garrison Keillor I am inspired to fill it out and mail  it in.

Its not that I dislike Bassoons, they are tricky, and I don't expect them.  They have a very good function in music-- but the timbre always startles me.  There is a 12 step program I think....

I am so startled by the venom of the right.  So much so that I feel like I can't really say anything about my politcal view amongst my Northwoods companions.  Hearing a bit of the Glen Beck show last night really amazed me that people are really buying his picture of the world- and I think I live amongst them.  So, when the DNC reached out to me--it was like a breath of fresh air--ooo  I really am Democrat--
so I'll let myself be flattered and fill out the survey. 

Packers win tomorrow I hope.  I think both teams are kind of cool.     Don't anyone tell my Pomeranian GentlemenFriend that I said that.  I do like the Packers better- having had first had experience last year going to a game a Lambeau. 
On with my day-- who knows what I'll get up to?

Mopping the floor

There is a new me sprouting in the Northwoods.  Our little house is always "Morning in the Forest."  I need to work-- but until I remake that part of my life I'm remaking myself.  And finding such laughter.  My Pomeranian GentlemanFriend and Iwere sitting at the kitchen table watching TV.  He was talking to Kyra on Skype and when he got done, we both realized that there was a strange "trickling water sound.'  It turned out to be the sink over flowing.  So -- hey we have invented a new way to mop the kitchen floor.  It looked great.

Picking up the Blog again--

We are in the Northwoods and pretty happy about it. Lots of revelations. More later. I just had to update this blog-- I couldn't stand seeing the April 2010 date.
As I said: More in a bit.