What Happened to Spring?

What happened to Spring?  Winter was here and now it's summer.  One week of rain and mild temperatures and now it is almost 80 degrees.  Today the boys were convinced they were going to die of heat stroke if I didn't let them go swim in the river.  It took some convincing to drop everything and head down to Barn Beach, but we did go.  Of course, the river is ICE cold.  The boys jumped in and quickly jumped back out, but they weren't done.  They continued to jump in and out of the river til our play time was up.  One day I will figure out how to download the pictures of my phone to my computer and let you see them.  I had to laugh that here it is April 23 and we are playing in the river.  Gotta love it!

Fooling Around

Bonnie and her friend, Alyssa, were dancing around the living room the other night showing Todd and I their dance routine for the high school play, Once Upon A Mattress. They were so funny.  I am glad that Bonnie has such a good friend. 

Brian is reading Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls.  It is not for school, but mainly to get him to love reading.  He read Where the Red Fern Grows also by Wilson Rawls first.  He tried to fake his way through but since Todd and I know the book he didn't do a good job of fooling us.  Todd made him read a half hour a day and then give an oral report and quizzed him.  Before long, Brian was engrossed in the book.  I know he got sucked into the story when he was in tears at the ending.  Of course, he was not happy that we made him read such a tragic book.  I then told him to read the Summer of the Monkeys which is also about a boy and his dog, but in this book you will laugh.  In fact, I was thrilled to see that Brian would not put the book down on Friday and at times I saw him laughing to himself as he was reading.  What a thrill that is for me! A new world is opening up to him and I can't wait to see what he will read next.

 Sunday, Bryce's Sunday school class sang "Wide, Wide Is the Ocean" for our offertory.  

A couple of the kids were not there on Sunday, but you can see Bryce is the tallest of the group.  He led the group in singing which thrills my heart.

Todd's mom, Susan, sings with the kids every Sunday morning and has been working with them for several weeks.  I am so thankful that my kids don't struggle with getting up on stage and performing. Brian probably suffers the most from stage fright, but he is eagerly working on his drums and plans on performing on stage one day in a  praise band. 

Yeah For Spring

Spring is finally here.

Bonnie couldn't resist the urge to sit in our tree and read.

Last night Bonnie went to a youth group at an area church.  We don't exactly see eye to eye doctrinally but Todd and I saw this group as a positive social activity for our daughter and have allowed her to attend providing she report back what was being taught.  Lately, there has been concern since their youth pastor has moved to another church and various people are filling in.  Bonnie came home telling us that the lesson was  how to pray and the story taught was about a guy who drew a circle in the sand and told God he was not moving from the circle until God answered his prayer.  Try as hard as I could, I could not remember that story anywhere in the Bible.  Once we got home I began to dig through my Bible and still could not find the story.  That is when I asked for Todd's help.  Guess what?  He didn't know about it either.  Why?  Because it is not in the Bible.  It is a Jewish legend.  We did some research and this is what I found.
 _________________________________________________________________________________
http://jhom.com/topics/rain/honi.html

Honi Ha-me'aggel (the Circle-Maker) was a renowned pietist in the period of the Second Temple (first century BCE) who was said to have performed good deeds by using extraordinary powers of prayer or by performing miracles. According to popular legend, Honi slept for seventy years and on awakening prayed for death rather than living in a strange world.

The following story, which tells of his power to bring rain in times of drought, is recorded in many sources. His name, ha-Me'aggel ("one who draws circles") is usually taken to be connected with this incident[1]. Some scholars claim he was named Honi Ha-me'aggel after the place from which he came, [2] while others suggest he was so called as he was often called to repair roofs or ovens, with a ma'gillah ("roller").[3]

Once there was a terrible drought in the land of Israel. It was already the month of Adar, which usually marks the end of the rainy season and the beginning of spring, but no rains had fallen all winter long.

So the people sent for Honi the Circle-Maker. He prayed, but still no rains came. Then he drew a circle in the dust and stood in the middle of it. Raising his hands to heaven, he vowed, "God, I will not move from this circle until You send rain!"

Immediately a few drops fell, hissing as they struck the hot white stones. But the people complained to Honi, "This is but a poor excuse for rain, only enough to release you from your vow.

So Honi turned back to heaven and cried, "Not for this trifling drizzle did I ask, but for enough rain to fill wells, cisterns, and ditches!

Then the heavens opened up and poured down rain in buckets, each drop big enough to fill a soup ladle. The wells and the cisterns overflowed, and the wadis flooded the desert. The people of Jerusalem ran for safety to the Temple Mount

"Honi!" they cried. "Save us! Or we will all be destroyed like the generation of the Flood! Stop the rains!"

Honi said to them, "I was glad to ask God to end your misery, but how can I ask for an end to your blessing?"

The people pleaded with him, and he finally agreed to pray for the rain to stop. "Bring me an offering of thanksgiving," he told them, and they did.
Then Honi said to God, "This people that You brought out of Egypt can take neither too much evil nor too much good. Please give them what they ask so that they may be happy."

So God sent a strong wind that blew away the fierce rains, and the people gathered mushrooms and truffles on the Temple Mount.

Then Shimon ben Shetakh, head of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, said to Honi, "I should excommunicate you for your audacity,[4] but how can I, since you're Honi! God coddles you as a father does his young child. The child says: 'Hold me, Daddy, and bathe me, and give me poppyseeds and peaches and pomegranates,' and his father gives him whatever he wants."

So it was with Honi the Circle-Maker.
___________________________________________________________________________________
This story was taught to give our children an example on how we should pray.  This is not the example that God gives us in his scriptures.  Tonight Bonnie got a second lesson on not only what does God teach us about prayer, but discerning what is scriptural and what is man's teachings. 


Needless to say, we are concerned.  This is what is wrong with our churches today.  They are not teaching the Word of God to our kids.  Bonnie assumed this story was in the Bible, I am sure many other kids went home believing it is in the Bible too.  Jews still share this legend.  Jews who refuse to acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.  Be Warned!  Check out what is being taught to you and your children.  Check it against scripture, just as the apostle Paul told us to do. 

Is It Me?

I am beginning to think that I am not a good communicator.  Once again this week, I am finding that people are not following through with information that I had "thought" I had communicated clearly with.  See, even that sentence doesn't sound very clear.  It must be me.

I think my problem is that I am too trusting.  I believe and hope that people will do whatever they say they will.  This, however, is not the case.  I guess I need to keep checking in, nag, remind, whatever it takes, to make sure there is follow-through.  Ugghh! 

I guess it is time to do damage control, get on the phone, and apologize for not communicating clearly.  Then make sure we are crystal clear on what I need from people.  Then nag and re-check in again to make sure we are still very clear.  Is that CLEAR?

Gene Krupa & Buddy Rich Famous Drum Battle

Hello....Are you still there?
Sorry about taking the month off.....I could give you a play by play of what has happened in the past few weeks, but I don't want to scare you totally off.  Let's just say I went to Indiana for a week to celebrate my dad's 70th birthday, got sick, and finally feel up to par again.

Today is my first day in this past month that I don't have anything scheduled.  I feel lost.  It is so gorgeous outside that I think it is time to pick out all the Maple keys that have taken root throughout my flower beds.  That will take a couple of hours. 

One thing I do want to share is Brian is taking drum lessons.  I am SO excited for him.  I can't wait for him to reach that level when he can play some awesome beats for us.  To inspire him I pulled up a drum battle between my two favorite drummers - Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich.