Common Sense 101

I just started reading Common Sense 101/Lessons From GK Chesteron by Dale Ahlquist.

I'll write summary as I go along. In the Preface, Ahlquist questions "How did the world forget such an unforgettable character?"

I agree, I had not heard of GK Chesterton until my apologetics class in graduate school. Our required reading was Baker's Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics which refers to Chesterton numerous times before "C". I was so impressed by the information about Chesterton that I decided to find out who this humerous, witty, intellectual, person that I had never heard of was. I have not been disappointed. I was only dismayed that I had not heard of him sooner and that more of my Christian friends did not know about him also.

Continuing with the summary...Chesterton was a journalist from the early 20th century who wrote hundreds of books and essays about everything, "penned epic poetry but also delighted in detective fiction, that he made everyone laugh, that every who knew him loved him, that he was happily married but unhappily had no children, that he took on all the leading thinkers of his time and challenged them not only on his clear ideas but with the example of his own life..."

Alquist states this book is a look at life through the eyes of Chesteron, a Chestertonian perspective. "Chesteron wrote about everything. An ocean of words poured out of his pen. It is deep, dangerous, it is delightful, it is refreshing, it is full of surprises, it is full of life."

Get ready to swim...

Thanksgiving - One of my favorite holidays

Proclamation of Thanksgiving
Washington, D.C.October 3, 1863

This is the proclamation which set the precedent for America's national day of Thanksgiving. During his administration, President Lincoln issued many orders like this. For example, on November 28, 1861, he ordered government departments closed for a local day of thanksgiving.
Sarah Josepha Hale, a prominent magazine editor, wrote a letter to Lincoln on 28, 1863, urging him to have the "day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival." She wrote, "You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and authoritive fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution." The document below sets apart the last Thursday of November "as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise."

According to an April 1, 1864, letter from John Nicolay, one of President Lincoln's secretaries, this document was written by Secretary of State William Seward, and the original was in his handwriting. On October 3, 1863, fellow Cabinet member Gideon Welles recorded in his diary that he complimented Seward on his work. A year later the manuscript was sold to benefit Union troops.

By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,Secretary of State

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm

Quote

John Mark Reynolds, PhD

...one reason most people aren't Christians is because most Chritians aren't Christians.

Hmmm...

Contending for the Christian Worldview
Biola University

GK Chesterton quote...gotta love this guy.

"It is terrible to contemplete how few politicians are hanged." - The Cleveland Press, 3/1/21

The Sun'll Come Up Tomorrow...

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." Alice Walker

A dreadful thing happened on November 2...we set our clocks back an hour. This really messes with my sleep but now, instead of going to work in the dark, I get see the sun rise on my way to work...and I have not been disappointed.

I have been looking for the silver lining with this dark cloud of election results...I have found it.

First of all, I am thankful to live in a country where I get the opportunity to select my leaders and representatives. I am also very thankful that "regime change" takes place in this awesome country without violence. There aren't many countries in the world this can happen!

The election results were reported, the sun rose, and I am able to voice my opinion about that! Again, an awesome freedom we enjoy and probably take for granted. We have the right to voice our opinion about our government.

But the silver lining is that this is a tremendous growth opportunity for me. I am challenged to become even more involved in this great Republic, to research more, to discern more, to discuss more, to be more accountable in my own opinions, and to even help others become more involved and almost with a sense of urgency. Perhaps many Christians who have sat complacently by in times past will now be challenged to step forward and take on the challenge of government and "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." (Lincoln)

Also posted on Del Tackett's blog Truth Observed (www.deltackett.com)

Now, what?

The election is over...

The results are final...

Now, what do I do?

Just Keep Praying!

1 Timothy 2:1-4 (New American Standard Bible)
A Call to Prayer
1First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Quote

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.

John F. Kennedy, speech at Vanderbilt University, May 18, 196335th president of US 1961-1963 (1917 - 1963)

Our Own Worst Enemies

Elections seasons are great for watching politicians defeat themselves. I have to say that Joe the Plumber is the greatest blooper that I've seen this year and the other party is using it to its advantage. Wisely so, this is a very serious issue.

I hope Joe gets a great position after the election...White House Plumber...The First Plumber!!

I work for Joe the Lawyer and my husband is Joe the Carpenter so I am very interested in what happens to Joe the Plumber.

I'm not into the idea of spreading the wealth and I certainly don't have any extra to spread so be careful with and don't vote yourself into poverty.

Book Review

Exerpt from How To Ruin The United States of America by Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth

America The Beautiful: Forgotten

With the eradication of history and its replacement with America-bashing sloganeering, elementary truths once taken for granted throughout our society are perilously close to being forgotten. Consider: How long has it been since citizens began being the arbiters of their own government rather than used a schattel however rulers saw fit? How long has it been since men and women gained the ability to get rid of their leaders through ballots instead of revolution? Perhaps a few hundred years out of tens of thousands.

How long has man been able to have hot baths on demand? A century. How long has he been able to have a safe, delicious food at any time? Maybe 80 or 100 years. How long has he been able to have an air-conditioned room in the desert? Fifty years. How long have Jews had completely equal rights with Christians in America? Perhaps 40 years at most, out of 5,800 years of Jewish life. How long have black men been in high political office in large numbers? Just 10 or 20 years. How long have women had completely equal rights?

In other words, America offers us a golden age on a silver platter - a life that's the envy of the world, a life of comfort, safety, health, and opportunity almost unimaginable to earlier generations.

Most of us have never been prisoners in a concentration camp. We've never been led into a gas chamber and gassed with Zylkon B. We've never been rounded up in a town in Romania and beaten to death by fascist thugs with iron rods. We've never been used for unanesthetized experiments by Dr. Mengele. We've never been on a death march in the Phillipines. We've never gone hungry, never been forced to work outside in the Polish winter in cotton clothing while suffering from typhus. We haven't lived through an economic depression lasting 11 years, where our store of treasure turned to dust an able-bodied members of our family went hungry for lack of work. Yet these were the fates of millions, even in our lifetimes.

We never had to charge against a massed cannon and musket fire in a Fredericksburg, be a prisoner in a gulag, or be shot at the Lubyanka (intelligence headquarters) because some OGPU officer had to make his quota of "wreckers and saboteurs" in order to placate Stalin. We've never had to charge against German machine guns at Ypres or the Somme. We've never suffocated in the hold of a Japanese prison ship. We've never had to charge against Japanese Nambu machine guns at Taraw, Peleliu, or Okinawa. We have never been torpedoed while making the Murmansk run, then thrown overboard and drowned in the icy water while our friends died all around us, or eaten by sharks because our ship was torpedoed in the Pacific by Japanese submarines.

How blessed most of us have been.

But the point of our thanks is that there are millions - tens of millions- who suffered and died to bring us the sunny pleasure that is America today. What's missing from our whole chocolatey-sweet culture is this realization fo just how amazingly thankful we have to be to the men who died so we could bitch and moan about traffic or bad cell-phone service. How will we ever be able to pay these people back? What can we do for the child without a grandfather because that man died assaulting Shuri Castle on Okinawa or defending Corregidor or breaking through to Bastogne or holding off the Chinese Communists at Chosin?

It seems as if the whole country is on the road to forgetting how we got to where we are. If we lose sight of just how precious our nation and our way of life are, we'll lose our purpose and meaning, and we'll be easy prey for our enemies.

This has to be taught. We have everything we do because brave men bled and their wifes, mothers, fathers, and children sobbed and were along. This is what should be on TV- shows that bind the nation together in gratitude. But where do we start when women like Paris Hilton's mother are considered role models?

We aren't worried about America's financial capital. There's plenty of money and plenty of trinkets. We are worried about our moral capital. It's as if it has been loaded onto ships and is sailing out of sight. When it is gone, what will we do?

"Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt lose its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?"

p. 79-82
New Beginnings Press, Carlsbad, CA, USA, 2008

Recommended Reading

God Won't Vote This Year
by Dave Zanotti

Exerpt:

In America, we each have the right to participate in the process of shaping the government. That right is a gift the Founders believed came from God the Creator. We have exactly the kind of elected officials we put into office by our actions. The Bible teaches God governs in the affairs of men. God can veto the results of an election anytime He wishes but there is little evidence in America history that God has ever chosen to do so. Granted, a few vetoes from the Almighty along the way might have saved the nation oa freat deal of grief. The people of americal have the God-ordained right to government based upon the consent of the governed. And like ancient Isreal, we the people are resonsible for the consequences of our collective decision.

Therefore, we cannot blame God if the candidates running ar not to our liking. we cannot blame God if the lesser or the greater of two evils is elected. Gos is not voting this year, next year, or in the years to come. He gave us the right to do that for our selves. In the long term and in the short term we get exactly the kind of government we choose. (pp 58-59)

www.godwontvote.com

My thought: God is not a citizen of the USA and therefore not eligible to register and vote. Cute play on words though. Those of us who are citizens ought to cherish the right and opportunity to vote for our representatives. Once elected, we need to continuously communicate with these representatives so they can do just that, REPRESENT. If they don't know what their constituents' thoughts, beliefs, wants, etc., are, how will they make decisions regarding legislation.

Back to school - NOT

Our back to school started Monday, September 1. Yeah, I know, that's a holiday but we did a lot of organization stuff and a few math problems and memorized some poetry. Easy stuff. The first week went really well and I am very thankful that I have the opportunity to experience learning with Bradley.

The FREEDOM of homeschooling is one of those things you may not understand until you do it. Organized schools, whether public or private, cover families with RULES. Whether you have a student at your house or not, most citizens don't realize how much of their life schedule is dicatated by school schedules. Not to mention how every taxpayer pays for government schools whether they ever use it or not. In NC, those of us who participate in non-public education pay twice. We pay taxes, and then we either pay private school tuition or we pay for curriculum, co-ops, labs, etc.

With one week under my belt, I am moving forward and adding a subject this week "Analytical Grammar." Interesting curriculum. Written by a school teacher, we study grammar for 10 weeks and then do "refresher/reminder" work once every two weeks for the remainder of the year. I'm really looking forward to 10 weeks of grammar and then being able to move on from that. I'll let you know how it goes.

Where have you been?

Wow! It's been a while since I've blogged. I thought this summer would be calm and I would have much free time to do some things I've been wanting to do. Instead, it was worse busy than before school finished.

Just recently I attended a family reunion in Bryson City, a birthday/slumber party with Bradley in Maggie Valley, and I joined the Y. I have managed to continue doing an exercise class two or three times each week but I haven't finished reading anything. I haven't rode my bicycle or took a walk or spent any down time.

This past weekend and next week I am preparing for homeschool year number 3. I've ordered a new Grammar curriculum, made decisions about which Tapestry of Grace year to use this year and which books and other items I need to order. I've also contacted a family friend who can proctor me in my homeschool and be an accountability person for Bradley. Since she is in fifth grade now, I need to start keeping track of her grades. School starts September 1 so maybe life will return to ???Normal??? If I even know what that is anymore.

Ethical Announcement

I am notorious for borrowing photos and such from other websites. I mean for what other reason is there a website called Google Images anyway? But not just Google Images but "private" websites. I usually try to give credit for these things but occasionally there's something that slips through un-cited. I just want to make that clear that I am not always responsible for the photos on my site. I don't consider it stealing if my computer will let me do it with a couple of key strokes.

DON'T watch this....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjcZNR6MiRE&feature=related



So, now that you've watched it, what do you think?

Quote and thought

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke



Someone said this would be a good slogan for Barak Obama's campaign.
Think about it...It took me a minute also.

My Shooting Star

Bradley spent last week in a gymnastics camp at The Shooting Stars gym in Hickory. Vladimir and Ilena are the coaches/owners. There were a total of FIVE gymnasts present for the camp which meant that Bradley shared her three hours of practice with one other Level 5 gymnast. It was like a three hour private lesson with Vladimir and Ilena. We are very thankful that Hannah was there! I've posted a couple of the videos so you can see what Bradley was doing. Vladimire was training her Level 6 on bars.

Today is the 10th anniversary of meeting the coolest person I know...

Today is Bradley's 10th birthday. It's hard to believe it's been ten years.

Ten years ago there was formula and diapers, and I had to change her clothes several time a day. Now there is leotards and tape and she still changes her clothes several times a day.

She still objects to taking a bath and doesn't see the point in sleep, but we've managed to make it work. A lot has changed in those ten years but Bradley is wonderful and being 10 is fun!!!

My New Neighbor

This is my new neighbor. Forrest Benson Tyner. He was born June 13, 2008. He and I "hung out" yesterday for a few minutes. He's really cool. Doesn't talk much yet but he's a good a listener!!!

...and his mom looks really great too!!!

Cool Shot

This is from Dr. Tackett's blog Truth Observed. There's a link to his blog in the right column.

He caught a bumble bee taking a sip in the humming bird feeder. I just thought this was a great shot and wanted to share.

Dude,

I have a Dell Computer and a couple of weeks ago while I was working dilligently I rested my hand on the keyboard. When I moved my hand again, somehow my nail had gotten under the ENTER key and it snapped right off. I had all the parts and could get it back together but it was wobbly and wouldn't stay.

After a couple of weeks of this frustration because I hit the enter key a lot, I decided to see what Dell could do about it. Tuesday night while at gymnastics practice, I did an online chat with a Dell techie, his name was Luis. I explained to Luis what had happened and he said he would send me a new keyboard. He said it would come Tuesday. I was so excited.

Low and behold on Wednesday, the very next day, before noon, voila! a box from Dell appears at work and there is my new keyboard. Wow, that's impressive customer service and delivery. Less than 24 hours after I notified them of my need, they deliver.

I took the new keyboard to Justin who works next door for Applied Solutions. Guess what? He fixed my ENTER key. No new keyboard needed. So I have an extra keyboard just in case an obsure key I never use wants to come off.

Another funny part of this story. Hannah told me that on Thursday, after getting the messages off the answering machine at work, there were two messages from Dell that they were having problems with my order and that I wouldn't get my replacement part as originally scheduled. Well, yeah, I know that and I don't really need it either, I've got Justin. Sometimes I wonder about large corporations.