Long Road Ahead

OK, my blog 365 idea has to take a break. My computer is haunted. Until my DH can get his exorcism done (I believe it involves holy water, candles, reformatting the hard drive, and incense) I will be getting some more knitting done.

In the interest of making myself feel less like a dropper-of-the-ball I will keep track of how many days I miss so as to make them up with double entry days later.

And I will now add a random picture, just to show my love for you all.
Here is a picture of my in-laws' yard one year we were there and DID get snow. It is NOT New Years 09.

Dropped a few days

Well, it looks like deciding to spend some time away from the computer can have an effect on how often one blogs. Whoda thunk?

Sorry about the hiatus.

I know I promised to discuss Sarah and Hagar. I have changed my mind.

Heh, that kind of sums up what I was going to cover about them anyway...changing your mind. Though in their case it was going to be more "be careful what you decide" and "seriously think through the consequences" with a healthy dose of "was this the first ancient soap opera, or what?" (I doubt it. I am sure there were earlier versions.) They behave in what can only be called "typical soap opera female ways." Abraham never should have fallen for that, "take my maid for your concubine" bit. I just don't see that working out well.

Jacob had similar troubles with Rachel and Leah. But they seemed to focus more on outdoing each other than worrying about the concubines. Sibling rivalry. The poor fool. The maids are not mentioned as making any fuss, even Bilhah, Rachel's maid, before Rachel had her own son. I think the difference may be in their pasts. Zilpah and Bilhah are the bride's maids from before Jacob came along. They have presumably been slaves all their lives. Hagar was Egyptian. There is even the thought that she may have been a daughter of pharoah. Growing up a princess might give one the snarky attitude she developed.

To just skip around now though thoughts I have had while reading my bible, but haven't blogged yet, we move on from female rivalry to male rivalry.

I am not diving into Jacob and Esau too deep. It is a well known story. But, notice that it is Jacob, the younger brother who stole (arguably) his older brother's birthright and blessing, who reverses the blessing of Joseph's sons, blessing the younger to rule over the older. I guess there may be some family baggage that never goes away.

Flurries

We have some delicate white stuff falling from our Mississippi skies this morning. The girls are excited to see it, even if we are not going to get any accumulation. DD11 bemoaned the fact that it did not snow last week when our temperatures dipped into the single digits Fahrenheit. Since then we have had a couple of unseasonably warm days. It was in the 50s after church Sunday.

Anyway, it does bring back my own childhood memories seeing the snow fall. I spent many more snowy winters than not. I am not sure I have fully turned into a Mississippi girl. But I wouldn't go so far as to say I want months out of the year covered in snow.

Sermon Notes

Our pastor has been working his way through Ephesians for the past few months of Sundays. We were in chapter 6, verses 1-3 this week. He had Children's Church cancelled to keep the crumb crunchers in the sanctuary for the particular-to-but-not-only-for them message.

DD 8 was a little fidgetty. That was more an attention spam / boredom issue than discomfort at being told to obey her parents.

I didn't get a good look at DD10. I can imagine what her expression was, but that really wouldn't be fair to her. Especially given...

DD11, my Little Miss Attitude, the Champion Eye Roller of Lafayette County Youth Division, was leaning forward in her seat, listening with a great deal of attention to everything he said. I was impressed.

Date Night Fun

There is nothing particularly blogworthy about our date night. We drove an hour to Tupelo to eat and see a movie. The theatre in Oxford is no longer showing Twilight, which I had decided I wanted to see.

We had a lovely dinner at Red Lobster and afterward I decided that, no longer being a 19 year old goth, I didn't feel like seeing Twilight. And the was really nothing else showing that I wanted to see. We were having a great time talking and didn't feel like we made the wrong choice.

I did have some indigestion later, which I blame on the shrimp. It have been thinking over it and realized that fried foods like "Walt's favorite Shrimp" are really no longer a big part of my diet. About as "fried" as food gets around here is the recipe saying "brown the meat." That and the ocassional hamburger are no comparison to a dozen deep fried, batter dipped shrimp.

Maybe I should go back to eating a kosher-based diet. Then again, it was the frying, not the shrimp that gave me the stomach ache.

We'll see.

yeah

Running late, no blog today. date tomorrow, wonder if there is any good movie showing. probably not

A Piece of History

We visited a local man this afternoon who has a blacksmith shop. We got to see how he does what he does, as well as learn about the tools and craft involved. We all (me DEFINITELY included) learned a lot and had a very good time.

We got to watch him turn a 1/2 inch square rod of steel about a yard long into a fireplace poker. It was great.

You know how people often collect items related to their hobbies? Like knitting needles, fishing lures, or model train cars? Mr. Waller has an anvil collection. I suppose 5 counts as a collection. That is 5 more than I have. He knew a lot about the history of each anvil, as well as of anvils in general. Did you know that sea captains crossing the Atlantic would buy anvils to use as ballast for their ships? The ships and cargo didn't actually belong to them. They were only getting paid for the work, not the mercantilism. Instead of carting rocks across the ocean to add weight to the ship they would buy anvils that they could then sell in the US and make money for themselves. Isn't that interesting?

Well, I had the car this afternoon and DH just IMed me that he is ready for his ride home. Gotta go.

Time Warp

My husband thinks I have gone off the deep end. I have recently been watching quite a bit of television online. That isn't what he is going on about. He is teasing me about my new favorite show.

Barney Miller

I can't really explain it myself. His funniest comment was something like, "Isn't today's television good enough for you?" Does he really want me to answer that?

Now, the diffference isn't really anything moral or cultural, Then vs. Now. This isn't Car 54, Where Are You. The mid 1970's marked the beginning of the television powers-that-be trying to push the envelope and see what they could get away with. Barney Miller has plenty of what one might expect to see in a NYC police precinct, minus the bad language (That envelope was only beginning to get pushed.) The cops are clean, good guys, but the show itself isn't "clean." So, what is the appeal?

Maybe it is that the cops are such good guys.

Also, I like to laugh. Sit coms now-a-days (and even in the 1980's and 1990's) are family based. Those that are work based are not police-based. Cops get one hour dramas now and they try to be edgy. Barney Miller isn't edgy. It may have tried at the time it was on the air, but edgy is hard to pull off 30 years after the fact.

What can I say? I like it.

Telephone Etiquette

We have been going over telephone etiquette today. DH hooking up the old business phones in various rooms has helped. We can have almost live practice.

I am tired of making up fake names for them to take down as messages. And random phone numbers. I think I will get the phone book and use it for names and numbers.

First day back at School

Things went well today for our first day back at school. Math review quiz scored better than I had hoped. The simple machines lesson was met with some stares of confusion until I brought out the 1x4 and wood-block (fulcrum) to do some in-life demonstrations. Now the girls are begging to play with our lever.

They enjoyed the European geography lesson and the introduction to Spanish AR verbs. We now know where to find Finland on a map. Helpful, if we are ever lost in Eastern Sweden. And, if we should be found by a kindly Spanish-speaking Swede we can tell him how much we like music and singing.

Back to Normal

Despite most of the decorations still being up, things around here are pretty much back to normal. DH is well enough to go to work. The girls and I are starting lessons tomorrow. DB hasn't started his semester yet, but it'll happen in a couple of weeks. As much as I like the holidays, it is nice to get back to normal. (I will ignore the fact that we will be having contractors gut a couple of our rooms soon.)

I really need to get back to planning lessons for this week. I am here because I really needed a break from that, but there is still a lot to be done.

Our homeschool group has a field trip to a local blacksmith later this week. It is hard for me to reconcile taking an afternoon off lessons when i am doing so well at planning, but I also think it would be way cool to go and don't want to miss it. I am not sure yet what we will do.

Later.

PS_ I'd lay money that we do go to the blacksmith.

Today's "What the blog entry COULD BE"
Who put the sqeezie cheese into the refrigerator?

Now, on to the real blog entry;

My Thoughts on Biblical figures; a layman's psychological perspective as I read my Bible this year

(Note: I am not a Bible scholar. I will try to do a little research into the person I present, but may sometimes just post my own musings. They may at times seem irreverent. I am not trying to be iconoclastic, just take these people are often made into symbols and take as real a look at them as I can. These were human beings, and they were special. I want to understand them, as people.)

(Note II: I am skipping Adam and Eve because I do not find them interesting right now. I may come back to them later.)

Abraham and Sarah (also Abram and Sarai)

Traditionally Abram was a merchant's son. (There is an interesting story about his father's shop, but I do not find mention of it in the Bible. I will research it more before presenting it.) I really do NOT get the feeling that he was particularly rich when God told him to leave his home and go to Canaan. After not too long though he was very blessed and did get to be quite wealthy. That is obvious as one reads more about him.

Whenever we studied Abraham in Sunday School (or sang silly songs while waving our arms about) the focus seemed to be on an OLD MAN. He wouldn't have been old at the outset, though. The same goes for Sarai. She is described as being exceptionally beautiful. That is not the image in my mind when I think of the barren woman who gave birth to her son in her 90's.

It is interesting to think of them when younger, kind of like thinking of your grandparents as youths. (As a side note, if you read Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad (and I recommend you do.) Twain was 31 when he wrote it, not the white-haired old man we all think about when his name comes up.)

A man and his wife, along with some servants and such, take to the life of nomads. They travel to Gerar and Egypt at various points. This is an interesting bit. Abram tells Sarai to say she is his sister rather than his wife, fearing that the local leaders would kill him to have her. Abram seem a little insecure about having such a lovely wife. Maybe his fear was founded. Did men often kill other men for their wives? I'll have to keep track. Abraham feared it twice, Isaac feared in (also in gerar, as it happens) and David did it. (Poor Uriah, if only he could have just said Bathsheba was his sister...)

In Egypt (Genesis 12) God brings troubles and plagues to Egypt when Pharaoh takes Sarai. I cannot believe Abram actually went through with the charade. Was he not jealous at all? It doesn't say, but I cannot help but imagine he was upset but felt he couldn't do anything about it, and better upset than dead.

Later in Gerar (Gen. 20) Abraham does the same thing. This time God gives the king who starts courting Sarah a dream that he shouldn't. He gives Sarah back and even tosses in some treasure and gifts.

I find the Gerar narrative more confusing than the Egyptian. How powerful was Abimilech? Abraham has become quite the powerful chieftain. When Lot gets caught up in a war between allied factions, Abraham attacks to rescue him. That is, he and his men take on an alliance of kings' armies (albeit AFTER a war, so numbers may have been down) to get his nephew back. And this man is so afraid of ONE local king 6 chapters later that he pulls that "she is my sister" stunt again?

I have two thoughts on this. Number 1: The biblical narrative may be out of order. It sometimes happens. I could totally buy this happening before Abram's forces were so many. The problem I have with that is that his name was changed between the rescue of Lot and the episode with Abimelech. The Egyptian encounter was before, but this came after.

My other thought is this: (don't stand too close, this is where the lightning strikes) I am not sure the Gerar episode in Genesis 20 happened at all. (wait for it...wait for it...Ok, I am still here, I'll continue.) I just cannot imagine Abraham doing this twice. Would he not have learned his lesson? Plus, like I said, his forces were much more powerful at the time of Genesis 20 than in chapter 12 (although I doubt they would have been strong enough to take on the Egyptian Pharaoh) a local Philistine king should have been no worry as far as being killed over a woman.

Genesis 26 is what also leads me to think that the Abraham/Abimilech episode may not have happened. In it we have the same happenings but with more details. Isaac is told during a famine NOT to travel to Egypt, as his father had. Things go as before, beautiful wife, fear for personal safety, pass her off as sister. This king is also called Abimilech. I doubt it is the same man. He'd have been ancient, and he would have known better than to trust those lying nomads again! (joking there, sorry) It could have been a son. Judging by the genealogies given, naming a son after his father was not common at the time, but those are Hebrew families, what Philistine customs were, I do not know. Still, you'd think the story would have been told. "Watch which women you court, Sonny. Sometimes men are lying about who is who."
However, if Abraham was not in Gerar for the other story, and there is just this Abimilech, it makes more sense. Isaac is no warrior. Even with his inherited wealth and household, he isn't going to take on a king.

OK, let's talk about the lightning striking me...I really don't want to go into the "infallible truth of the Bible." I do believe the Bible. But I have also studied ancient myths, carvings, and writings. It is totally conceivable that over time one story developed into two versions.
Even Moses, who is traditionally credited with having written Genesis, came hundreds of years later. Faced with two versions he may have simply made the choice to include both. Recording centuries later an oral narrative would explain the use of the name Abraham in a story which, even if it did happen, I am sure happened to Abram the nomad rather than Abraham the chieftain.

My view? The story HAPPENED, once, and it happened to ISAAC. How much does that change my faith or belief in God's word? Not at all. How much does it affect anything? Not much.

Next time - Sarah (and Hagar) and perhaps some insight into the psychology of women

A Little Cheering Up

Yesterday's blog was something of a downer, so here you go. This will make you smile. At least it did me and the girls.

Over sensitive?

I have the tendency to be oversensitive to other people's actions. I can over think an odd look until I run it into the ground. There are things I said 20 years ago that I wish I hadn't, and still think about. I am not talking about world-shattering events, either.

I was on a friend's new blog this morning. There is a list of blogs she reads, nothing new, most blogs have this. Mine is not there. Ok, maybe she forgot about it. But then, doesn't that mean that she doesn't read this blog? This is a pretty frivolous blog, I'll admit. Does everything have to be about something? Does she think I am frivolous? Should I deepen the blog? I had considered bible commentary. How about my crafts? Well, I never really finish much, and I am certainly not up to selling anything online. My crafts are more frivolous hobbies. Should I put in politics? There is no way I could keep up with what is already out there, and I don't really want to, either. Why would someone I thought was a good friend not read my blog? What does she think of me at all? Does she think of me at all? Are we actually friends? Does she just put up with me when she has to? Do I really have any friends in this city, even after living here for almost 4 years? Why don't I have any friends? Maybe it is because I am not a productive member of society, children being an investment that doesn't pay off for decades. Do I even have friends in other cities? Most ties have been cut. There are a few, but not many.

I just don't fit in much of anywhere outside this house. Even with my family, and ESPECIALLY with my in-laws. Who the heck am I anyway? What kind of person doesn't fit in anywhere, even in her own family, church, home school group, or college?

Anyway, that is the way my morning has gone. I need to go focus on something else before I get any lower into this funk.

%$&*@

Not cursing ;) I promise.

My husband sat down with me a few years ago and discussed NOT having our daughter's birthday be my password. (joking...I am NOT that stupid.) We talked about random capitalization, non-dictionary words, anagrams, and symbols. I created the perfect, in my humble opinion, password.

Want to know what it is? Huh, huh? Do ya?

Well, I'll tell you. It is an anagram of a movie quote. The caps are not random. It uses symbols for some of the letters. Good luck with that.

My computer nerd IT DH would probably not agree with he fact that I made this my default password. I am sure he would say "But, if someone finds it out then they can get into everything." Yeah, blah blah blah, whatever

I do have a secondary password that I devised when I realized that my movie quote was not 8 characters and some sites required longer passwords. I did't mind that; extra secure, you know. That password is a random intersting word I chose just because with a few l33t characters tossed in so I can pretend to be cool. Despite being longer I do not consider it as secure as the movie quote.

That is neither here nor there.

The dumb old phone company seems to be stuck in the 1980's. They want my online password to contain letters and numbers only! What?! I used to work at the phone company. Let me tell you...our login passwords in billing were not "letters and numbers only." We were REQUIRED to use symbols.

Neither my movie quote nor secondary password use only numbers and letters. OK, third password devised. *sigh*

Hurray for Windows remembering this stuff for me, right? (Don't get me started. I do lean on that crutch more than I should.) Yeah, until I get a nasty virus on my PC and have to start using the laptop for important things like paying the mortgage, paying the phone bill, and updating my blog. What? You mean being stored within 30 feet of my PC for a couple of months hasn't miraculously saved my passwords onto the laptop? Dang!

The mortgage password didn't give me too much trouble. I knew it was either the movie quote or the secondary. Took me forever to rememer my user id. There's some irony for you. It came to me last night in a wee-hour-epiphany (interesting day for an epiphany, eh?) No problem, got that paid before it even counts as late (barely.) I didn't want to login and pay that on the infected computer.

The phone bill was more trouble. Somehow the wrong user id was saved on the login page. That is it's own headache. I finally remembered what it was, but between that and trying my two passwords (on a site that uses neither) I got flagged with a "You have tried too much, go away and come back tomorrow, Loser" message. Annoying
There was a work around, though. I got in and changed my password to something that only uses numbers and letters. We'll see in a month whether I can remember it without help.

Dreary Monday

I look at the calendar and see that my DB has marked Jan 20 as the beginning of the Spring semester at Ole Miss. He still has 3 weeks of winter break. I imagine there are many public school kids who would LOVE to get 3 weeks AT ALL, let alone 3 weeks after the new year starts. Especially as today is the day most of them are back in the trenches.

That reminds me...maybe I should give the munchkins a lesson. Does MacGuyver on DVD count as "educational television?" A brief math review should do for this afternoon. "Write your times tables, let's see how much you rememeber."

Not as applicable to my pre-algebra math drag-ee (i.e. someone who is being dragged)
I think I'll have her do some laundry.

It is raining and gray outside. I imagine if it were colder it would be snow, but it rarely is here.

Cold update- mostly well, still some lingering inconveniences

Enjoying Vacation, sick and all

Despite being assaulted by a virus of the common cold type, I have greatly enjoyed the almost two weeks DH has had off from work. The general relaxed nature of the time, being home, spending the day with him, and the next, and the next. It just doesn't get much better than this.

He goes back to work tomorrow. I am going to miss him. I have been somewhat spoiled of late. I may actually be able to get something done around here.

We'll see.

What do I have to say?

It occurs to me, as I sit here, having planned to blog every stinking day, that many of my blog entries are of the "Today I had oatmeal for breakfast" variety.

I am also going to try to have blogs of substance.

We'll see how it goes.

No Wallowing Permitted

I am not a very good sick person. I am one of those people who whine and moan and make their beloved spouse get them...everything...while they wallow in bed ridden misery, no matter that said beloved spouse may also be sick. If he can move he is a nurse.

Unfortunately, when one is sick at the in-laws' home the wallowing cannot take place properly. And, if one must drive 7 hours home while still ill, the wallowing may have to be cut to a bare minimum. Grrr!

Bad impression, bad feelings, bad sinuses...bad vacation. Blah!

We are going home a day early and no one is happy about it.

North but No Snow

The girls were hoping we might get some snow while we visit their grandparents in Kentucky. A few weeks ago we would have, but not now. Tuesday on our way up it was 50-60 degrees F. There was a wind atorm and yesterday was colder, but no where near cold enough. There's just no telling with this latitude. Farther south and you are pretty much sure, no snow. Farther north and you are guaranteed to get it.

Oh well. It cut down on the complaining. The girls have had the sniffles this past week and there is no way I would let them play in the snow. I have already had to nix some play-outside plans and explain about things like pneumonia. If there were snow on the ground I know the hard feelings would be worse.

And speaking of the sniffles...I was fine Tuesday. I was the only one who hadn't gotten sick while we were in Mississippi. Yesterday I woke up with a sore throat and by last night could barely speak. My voice is still off, but better a little and the sniffs are upon me. I hate being sick. At least I know the girls got better after just a couple of days. I don't feel too bad.

365

So, one of my New Years New Ideas is to blog EVERY DAY. Never has someone so unimportant said so much to so few.

I know I already posted today, but this warrants its own mention, I believe. We'll see how long I can stick with it. I may end up posting "Things I Ate today" or "Where are my blue jeans?" after a while. I'll try to keep that to a minimum.

No promises

Happy New Year!!!

2008 was a rough year for my family. There were some nice highs but also some terrible lows. I am usually ambivalent about New Years, a party, fun seeing how many checks I fill out wrong, etc. I am not usually of the "Thank Goodness THAT year is done" feeling. This year does have some of that. We'll pray that 2009 is better.

Happy New Year to all of You!!!

Oh, a little tidbit, do you know why 2009 US pennies are worth more than 2008 pennies?