Enough Photos

I promise I won't post any pictures for awhile now. I know how frustrating it is for people who have slow internet when someone posts pictures. I am just discovering the joys of high speed internet. I can watch videos online! Photos take mere seconds to load! Oh, the blessed lack of annoyance at waiting ten minutes for a large email to come through.

Now for some news:
Pope Benedict: "deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address" I'm deeply sorry that he felt he had to say he was deeply sorry.

Here is the transcript of the speech that has Muslims rioting, again.  They are proving that Islam is not a peaceful religion. Some of you know that last Saturday our church hosted the missionary Peter Hammond in our area. He spoke about Islam, what it is doing to our world, and what we should do about it. I urge you to go read some of Dr. Hammond's articles on Islam.

Different subject:
Another good argument on why, if it's not already obvious to you, Iraq is better off without Saddam.
I must say, I love having comment moderation on. It allows me to delete anonymous easily and conveniently. Free speech? Not on my blog. Actually I only get rid of crude, insulting comments so make sure yours don't fall in that category.

"Many can argue; not many converse."

Just one more picture- at the end of the day, there was still this much tree left. Poor Dad! 

Isn't he cute! 

The boys working hard. 

Andrew on the patio with what was the top of the tree. 

Strange weather

Last night when Dad and us kids got home really late from the Peter Hammond talk, which was very educational and inspiring, by the way. The weather has been very strange these past few days and driving home in the dark was no picnic. We had to pass through very strong rain and the wind was terrible. When we finally did arrive home, we were very startled to find that our garage door was completely blocked by a very large fallen tree that had only hours before stood on one side of our yard. The strong, tornado-like winds had apparently blown it over. This fallen tree did some damage to our garage, just barely missed the purple car-which actually wouldn’t have been that great a loss anyway- and just touched the tip of our patio without hurting it. What a miracle that so little damage was done! Our clothesline, however, was demolished, and the state of our lawnmowers remains to be seen as they are still buried underneath the branches. Dad is going to have to get out the chainsaw today and cut at least some of the branches so he can take his car to work tomorrow. What excitement!

Children's class, third hour, home school co-op. Eating a snack of bananas. Home school co-op started last week and I am teaching a hour long art class. 

Stuff and nonsense

I drank three bottles of water today. Yes! It's like a game that's good for you- how much water can I drink in one day? Today I broke my previous record from the last two weeks and you can imagine what I feel like right now- very hydrated.
Today I finally started painting one of the pictures from our vacation to CO. I am doing the Air Force Academy chapel in acrylic. Why one earth is there an odd number of spikes on that thing? Why did they put them there at all? I am not very good at painting buildings. I was planning to do it in oil, but it turns out I am out of canvas and who knows when I'll be able to buy some more. Here's a cute poem to laugh at:

THE PATTER OF THE SHINGLE

When the angry passion gathering in my mother's face I see,
And she leads me to the bedroom, gently lays me on her knee,
Then I know that I will catch it, and my flesh in fancy itches
As I listen for the patter of the shingle on my breeches.

Every tingle of the shingle has an echo and a sting
And a thousand burning fancies into active being spring,
And a thousand bees and hornets 'neath my coattail seem to swarm,
As I listen to the patter of the shingle, oh, so warm.

In a splutter comes my father—who I supposed had gone—
To survey the situation and tell her to lay it on,
To see her bending o'er me as I listen to the strain
Played by her and by the shingle in a wild and weird refrain.

In a sudden intermission, which appears my only chance, I say,
"Strike gently, Mother, or you'll split my Sunday pants!"
She stops a moment, draws her breath, and the shingle holds aloft,
And says, "I had not thought of that, my son, just take them off."

Holy Moses and the angels! cast your pitying glances down,
And thou, O family doctor, put a good soft poultice on.
And may I with fools and dunces everlastingly commingle,
If I ever say another word when my mother wields the shingle!

Book club is today....

.....and I still don't have a job. It's a work in progress.
Ok, down to business. Here are some links for your edification:

A Townhall article by Doug Giles about Christians getting a little backbone now that we're at war: " 'But, shouldn’t we err on the side of love, tolerance and grace in dealing with these people?” I can hear some whine. Uh . . . not when it comes to glaze-eyed, militant Islamic monsters who intend to kill millions of people who don’t think the way they do."
Some people might not like the sarcastic humor in this article. I don't know who I inherited my sense of humor from, but it is the kind of humor that finds the book "The Princess Bride" funny.

There's a good book review of Oliver North's novels by Isaac MacMillen- what a good Scottish name he's got! Just go over to Regenerate our culture. For those in my geographical area, you have no excuse, because our local library has all three of North's books. Though I will confess, I did a lot of skim reading in the last book. All that detail about oil somehow doesn’t excite me.