Today I learned that....

Acoemetae were a group of 5th- to 6th-century Byzantine monks who were noted for their choral recitation of the divine office in constant and never interrupted relays. Their first monastery, at Constantinople, was founded in about 400 by St. Alexander Akimetes, who, after long study of the Bible, put into practice his conviction that God should be perpetually praised.

Briareus was a hundred-handed giant with fifty heads. During a certain battle, Briareus took advantage of his one hundred hands by throwing rocks at the Titans.

The name Acephali (from the Greek language, a-, "without," and kephale, "head") was given to certain legendary races described by ancient naturalists and geographers as having no heads. Sometimes I wonder if my brothers were born that way....

Chartreuse is a French liqueur composed of distilled wine flavored with 130 herbal extracts. The liquor is named after the Grande Chartreuse monastery where it is produced, which in turn is named after the Chartreuse Mountains, the region in France where the monastery is located.

Baile Átha Cliath is the Official Irish name of Dublin.

Blog time

Usually I read all my favorite blogs twice a week, when I am at work. Just out of curiosity, I went and counted how many blogs there are on my fav list. There are:

3 just educational(Michael Totten, Michael Yon, Michelle Malkin)
5 Christian blogs(Doug's blog, Maidens of worth, Rabenstranger, Push back ignorance, the Rebelution)
55 milblogs

Now I feel bad; so much time spent on reading these blogs! Why do I read so many blogs?

Well, they are a news source for me about the war, the men on the ground, and what is going on over there. They are all for the most part educational blogs. Notice I said "men on the ground"- my sister and I were just talking about this incredibly flammable issue last night. Most of you probably know my views on a women's place in the world- frankly, I do not believe women should be in the military. I know I could learn probably the same information from a woman soldier's blog that I could from a man's, but I choose not to read female milblogs because I do not want to support and recommend that which I have strong opinions against.

I know that it is very easy to spend way too much time on the computer, and I know I struggle with it when I have such easy computer access. At the same time, I don't believe all the time I spend reading the blogs on my list is wasted-I'm not just making excuses here; you can learn a lot from the right blogs. Also, not all of these bloggers post every week, so I don't actually read 55 new milblog posts every time I get on.

So I pray that I would not spend too much time online, and that I would choose to read blogs that are worth my time and are up to the standard of cleanliness that God requires of His children.

Short and sweet

What the hand is to the lute,

What the breath is to the flute,

What's the mother to the child,

What the guide in pathless wild,

What is oil to troubled wave,

What is ransom to a slave,

What is flower to the bee,

That is Jesus Christ to me.

Ordinary life

This morning while I was doing up my hair, my youngest brother stayed with me in the bathroom making "owl noises" all the while. After that he followed me to the dining room and demonstrated how he shoots his plastic pistol.... people don't realize what it means when we say, "Yes, he is cute, but he talks constantly." What we mean is, he talks ALL THE TIME(24/7/365), and not in a whisper, in a YELL. I love my brothers, but it is nice to get away to the office for a whole day of quiet. What kind of mother would I make, I wonder?

So today the boys are supposed to clean house for our guests; I hope they remember to mop, because Caleb got honey on the floor and Andrew spilled bubbles yesterday.

Here's a video for you to watch from Wednesday. It is of Congressman Geoff Davis of Kentucky, and it is only one minute long.

Busy, busy day.
I have a dozen articles to read and almost as many books to finish; our GenJ meeting is tonight and I need to prepare for that. So no deep posts today, just links for your edification and enjoyment:

Remember when the movie came out about Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Do you love the movies "Chariots of fire" and "Facing the Giants"? You might like this movie: Sophie Scholl: the final days.
I have not seen it myself, but I would like to.

War news:

Letters from the Desert: An Army Reserve Chaplain in Iraq.

Good news about Iraq from the Multi-National force website. Read their Freedom Facts.

My desert Adventure is one of my weekly reads; go check out his post "What to pray for"

Laconic

I just love the story of this word.

A laconic man is a person of few words;he is blunt and brief in what he has to say.

We get this word from the Laconians of Greece:
An Athenian herald told them: "If we come to your city, we will raze it to the ground". The Laconians merely answered, "If."

Wikipedia has a few more examples:

• Herodotus wrote that when before the Battle of Thermopylae, Dienekes the Spartan was told the Persian arrows would be so numerous as to blot out the sun. He responded with "So much the better, we shall fight in the shade." Today Dienekes's phrase is the motto of the Greek 20th Armored Division.
• On the morning of the third and final day of the battle, Leonidas, knowing they were being surrounded, exhorted his men, "Eat well, for tonight we dine in Hades."(They were obviously pagans!)
• When asked by a woman from Attica, "Why are you Spartan women the only ones who can rule men?" Gorgo replied, "Because we are also the only ones who give birth to men."
• Spartan mothers or wives gave a departing warrior his shield with the words: "With it or on it!", implying that he should return (victoriously) with his shield, or (his cremated body in an urn) upon it, but by no means after saving himself by throwing away his heavy shield and fleeing.
• When a Spartan complained to his mother that his sword was too short, she replied, "It would be long enough if you took a step forward."

Some of you may recognize these Spartan sayings from the movie "300" , which I have not seen and I don't plan to- the level of violence is a bit more than I want to see. And it has all those great special effects and graphics- what a waste!

Here I am, reading Constitutional Law like a good little GenJ club president, and now we're getting into religious freedom:

"Early in the autumnal session of the legislature of 1785, Patrick Henry proposed a resolution for a legal provision for the teachers of the Christian religion. In the absence of Jefferson, the opponents of the measure were led by Madison, whom Witherspoon had imbued with theological lore. The assessment bill, he said, exceeds the functions of civil authority. The question has been stated as if it were, is religion necessary. The true question is, are establishments necessary for religion. And the answer is, they corrupt religion. The difficulty of providing for the support of religion is the result of the war, to be remedied by voluntary association for religious purposes. In the event of a statute for the support of the Christian religion, are the courts of law to decide what is Christianity and, as a consequence, to decide what is orthodoxy and what is heresy? The enforced support of the Christian religion dishonors Christianity."

In the end, the bill didn't pass.

Thoughts

Just recently I've read a few Christian magazine articles about politics and war, and they were rather frustrating to me. They were written by very respected, intelligent Christian authors, and yet I find it very hard to agree with them.

They seem to be very like the Constitution Party in some ways, in their view of the current war and other past wars:

"We believed(and still do believe) that the United States had not fought a legitimate war since 1783. We were convinced that Wilson and Roosevelt had tricked the nation into war, with Roosevelt deliberately provok­ing Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor."

It is very hard for me to believe that FDR, however liberal, meant to deliberately provoke Japan to attack the U.S. so we could join the war. Would the author rather have had us continue trade with Japan, as it was then, intent upon conquering the world?

"We were foreign policy non-interventionists, called isolationists by non-interventionism's critics. We rejected the idea of the state as savior..."

I do not think America ought to be present in so many countries, militarily, politically, and otherwise, but I don't see how we can be isolationists either. We couldn't always be neutral and uninvolved. Right now, I believe America is acting out the opposite of isolationism, and that also is not good!

Overall, they were well-written articles that will provide some good fodder for discussion after dinner sometime. Lots of long words that I had to look up, all ending with "-ism". Words that normal people don't use, like "turgid", and "epistemology". But as with the Constitution Party, I got frustrated with the lack of solutions. You can point out wrongs- that's all good and fine-but what would you have done in that situation? What do you think should have been done instead? When you don't think about that, all you get is frustration.

And that way of writing seems like Negativism to me.

Isaiah 42:6-8

6 "I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,

7 to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

8 "I am the LORD; that is my name!
I will not give my glory to another
or my praise to idols.

Isaiah 42:6-8

Birthdays and books.

Yesterday we had an elderly lady over for dinner because her 80th birthday was last week. Mom gave her a birthday gift of Kidney/bladder tincture treatment. Kind of an odd birthday gift, but I guess if it made her happy.... and at that age most people probably could use that kind of gift, anyway!

I had a dentist appointment today, and I am glad to report that I have no cavities. I celebrated by eating a piece of chocolate. Ha ha! I am grateful for my healthy teeth, but I have a premonition that my love of chocolate will someday, perhaps, catch up to them.... but until then, vive la chocolate!

Today's book list:
Nathan J. Stone's "Names of God", I've really been enjoying it, and I highly recommend it. I just finished the chapter about "Adonai".
"Beginning German", copyright 1906. For some reason, the German language just really turned me off, so I decided not to finish it. Maybe I will learn enough to translate tombstone inscriptions, but that can wait until the summer.
"How I know God answers prayer", by Rosalind Goforth. I believe the story of the Goforths is still fairly well known- they were missionaries to China during the boxer rebellion. This book by Mrs. Goforth is all about answered prayers in her life.
"Words you thought you knew." by Jenna Glatzer. Kind of like a dictionary to help people better understand the words they use, and to explain how those words are often mis-used.
"Word origins and their romantic stories." So far I've only read the first two chapters, and I haven't gotten to any romantic stories yet. I did learn about how our alphabet was formed- very interesting.

Laughing is good for you

Mom laughed until she cried tonight because Jonny showed up for storytime wearing only sweatpants and huge underwater goggles, making him the envy of his brothers. He really looked hilarious, and so nonchalant. Just before this he spent five minutes banging a strange kind of Morse code on the kitchen floor with a yardstick trying to get Caleb to come upstairs.

Boys!

Caleb and I also had a good laugh about Tai Chi- besides the exercise class named "Tai Chi", we were so sure there was a kind of tea called Tai Chi, and it took us awhile to remember that it's actually Chai Tea.

So we've had a few good laughs this evening.

I glanced at a book today

"Imperial life in the Emerald city", by Rajiv Chandrasekaran. What a name he's got.
Inside Iraq's green zone. When I got this book from our local library, I thought it would be about Iraq, the war, our soldiers, etc. But instead it is all about the supposed injustices which America has inflicted on Iraq. It was all accusations and no solutions. Maybe there are a very few intelligent claims in this book, but I am not going to wade through all 297 pages of gloom to find them.

"MISTAKES WERE MADE!" protesters proclaim.
Well, Duh. You don't seem to realize that this is war. And I do not believe that the Americans in Iraq are as stupid and cruel as you say they are.

In order to close the day on a more positive note, here's an old favorite for you to enjoy.

METHUSELAH

methuselah ate what he found on his plate,

And never, as people do now,

Did he note the amount of the calorie count;

He ate it because it was chow.

He wasn't disturbed as at dinner he sat,

Devouring a roast or a pie,

To think it was lacking in granular fat

Or a couple of vitamins shy.

He cheerfully chewed each species of food,

Unmindful of troubles or fears

Lest his health might be hurt

By some fancy dessert;

And he lived over nine hundred years.

Life in small town

While Larry and Joyce were here at the business this morning they started discussing today's funeral, remarking on how it was a blessing the deceased could go, how he died, and what family members survived him, which led to reciting this fellow's genealogy. Everyone knows everybody here, and can even recite their ancestors for generations back.
Life in a small town....

The feudal system is not completely gone yet.

People give us their pot-luck leftovers because they know we have six kids at home.

Whatever you say in public could very well be repeated to the whole town, so be careful.

But even so, I am glad we could live here in this area, instead of in a crowded impersonal city. And contrary to common opinion, we do have indoor plumbing and even telephones here in the Midwest.

Today I...

Boiled chicken, cut it off the bone, put it back in the pot with vegetables, made noodles for the soup, then bagged it up to give away. Even used leeks this time, which gave it a good flavor. Made cookie dough, froze it in rolls, also to give away. Made chocolate sauce for Easter. Started the ham for tomorrow's lunch. Made cinnamon rolls for tomorrow's breakfast(Mom says we have to get up early for our very own Easter Sunrise service). Check everyone's hair for cleanliness, clean up from dinner, set out utensils for tomorrow, dole out medicine for colds, pacify, instruct and reprimand the boys.

A very productive day.

Home schoolers and Civic involvement

You can buy the whole study by Brian Ray about home schoolers here. My sister and I did political work in the last election and loved it. We plan to do it again.

Why do people ask this question?

Just when you think you've read everything....

No, not really. I should hope I'm not that arrogant. Anyway, I enjoy hymns, poems, and songs, and when I came across this old song on another blog I liked it immediately:

King Alfred’s War Song

When the Enemy comes in a’roarin’ like a flood
Coveting the kingdom and hungering for blood,
The Lord will raise a standard up and lead His people on,
The Lord of Hosts will go before defeating every foe;
defeating every foe.

For the Lord is our defender, Jesu defend us.
For the Lord is our defender, Jesu defend.

Some men trust in chariots, some trust in the horse,
But we will depend upon the name of Christ our Lord,
The Lord has made my hands to war and my fingers to fight.
The Lord lays low our enemies but he raises us upright.
He raises us upright.

For the Lord is our defender, Jesu defend us.
For the Lord is our defender, Jesu defend.

A thousand fall on my left hand, ten thousand to the right,
But He will defend us from the arrow in the night,
Protect us from the terrors of the teeth of the devourer,
Imbue us with your Spirit, Lord, encompass us with power;
encompass us with power.

For the Lord is our defender, Jesu defend us.
For the Lord is our defender, Jesu defend.

This was the only version I was able to find online, but apparently this song has been published in the book "Poems for Patriarchs" by Vision Forum. The book costs $20; Oh, if only I could just spend twenty bucks whenever I wanted.... but I'm a Scot, and therefore frugal.

Samuel Adams is one of my role models.

That's just a random and unrelated-to-the-post title.

A link from Doug Phillip's blog: World's tallest man ties knot
This story tickled my fancy because I, myself, am less than 5'6. Compared to me, 5'6 IS tall.
Also, check out the beautiful photos of the Father-Daughter tea.

Larry, our customer and local up-to-date weatherman(He gets all his news at the coffee shop, so we know it must be accurate) is ever our herald of woe- more cold weather, freezing temperatures, and I will not believe it-snooooow. I had already put away all my heavy winter clothes. Fifteen years of life in NE and the weather still surprises me.

Here's a few newer milblogs for you to ad to your favorites:
The desert Flier
Mark Green
Half a world away(Have to like this guy-he's a Husker)

Since we all have a cold at our house, and today is shaping up to be a quiet day, I've just been feeling the need to laugh hysterically. Only there's not much to laugh at. I did find this story humorous, though:
The roots of all evil.

So all I have accomplished so far this morning is reading milblogs, watching milblog videos, and posting. Watching milblog videos is always interesting, only I can hardly understand what the people are saying. Our speakers don't work very well- you have to keep slapping them and playing with the volume to hear anything. And now I have guilt for staying on the computer too long- so off to work!

It's a LILY-TROD!

I caught a slight cold, which is why I haven't been posting- I missed a day at work, so no high speed internet and no capacity to think. Our four year old came up to me today and said, "let's Alaska kiss!" Meaning, an Eskimo kiss. A very rare and tempting offer, and if my nose wasn't running I'd accept. He also violently insists that flamingos are really named "Lilytrods" and I have no idea why. He is such a hyper boy, but then again, aren't all boys hyper?