Athena in a Minivan

Some thoughts on John 15:1-10

I am what you would call an experiential learner. I can remember one time as a girl when my family was out to dinner; my mother was kicking me under the table, trying to get my attention about something. I don’t even remember what it was. Maybe I was talking too loud, a normal occurrence or maybe chewing with my mouth open or any other dinner table fau paux. Instead of just stopping whatever it is that she wanted me to stop, I turned to her and said, probably in my loud voice, “Why are you kicking me?” She was embarrassed, I was embarrassed, and it has been a family joke ever since.

Throughout my life I have had to see for myself if the stove was hot, the sidewalk was slippery or the pool too deep to touch bottom. I have had to learn from my mistakes. Will I really get a bad grade if I don’t turn this paper in on time?

God is so good and he has a wonderful sense of humor, he has given me my own experiential learner to raise. So now I find myself saying, “Why didn’t you just listen to me when I told you that you could not carry 12 plates at the same time (as we swept up bits of broken plate off the tile floor)?”  And things like “You will bump your head if you try to jump into the pool sideways and upside-down.” But I still hold and love on that same head when it gets whacked on the side of the pool.

God has a special heart for those of us who are experiential learners. He knows we are a bit hard headed and it takes a few bumps and bruises for us to finally get the message. I think John 15 is written especially for experiential learners. Jesus repeats, “Abide in me” not once, not even twice but TEN times!!! Thank you Lord, I get the message, THIS IS IMPORTANT.

“Abide in me and I in you,” Jesus says. The branch can not bear fruit unless it abides in the vine. Neither can I unless I abide in Him. Jesus does not even try to make this verse a mystery. He says, “I am the vine and you are the branches.” See no mystery. Whoever abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. If I don’t abide in him, I am thrown away and burned. YUCK, who wants that, I sure don’t. If I abide in him and his word abides in me, then I can ask Jesus whatever I wish and it will be done. WOW.  By this abiding in Jesus, the Father is glorified. Jesus tells me to abide in His love so that my joy may be full. This is my paraphrase of John 15: 1-10.

I get it Lord. You want me to abide in you but Lord no one uses that word anymore, it is a bit old fashioned. I do not say to my children, “Come abide with me on the couch while we watch, “The Backyardigans” together or to my husband, “Dear, I am so glad we abide together in the same household.”  So I looked it up in my handy dictionary. Abide implies a much deeper relationship that even the one I have with my children or my spouse. It means to accept without objection, to endure without yielding or turning away.

It is no mistake Jesus uses the illustration of the vine and the branches and the vinedresser. I want to abide in the vine. I want to endure without yielding. But being the experiential learner that I am, I now had to find out what being a branch was all about. If Jesus was going to ask me to be one, I wanted to know all the details.

In the fall, after the harvest, a grapevine is cut back to only the strongest part of the vine, the hard woody part that has been around for years. This is the part that endures the long cold winter. This is the vine.  In early March, buds begin to appear on the vine. By April, you can see tons of sprouting branches and the beginnings of grapes. They are tiny and of no use to anyone but they are there none the less. Come May, the vines has really begun to leaf and the buds are growing strong and the branches are looking great. In June the vine pollinates and it is now that the grapes start to appear in the form we know them.

The vines are full of developing grapes and leaves and tendrils and branches. I am sure that vine is feeling all good about itself and then, THIS GUY COMES ALONG. This is the vinedresser. See those big shears in his hand?

God the vinedresser does not want this to be a mystery. He wants us to abide in Christ so that we can be produce fruit that is not puny and lackluster but fruit that is large and abundant and brings glory to the Father. It brings us joy and love. It brings us answered prayers. I am learning to not be afraid of this pruning. Does it hurt, sure it does. Jesus calls me to abide in him. It is only by being one with the Son that I know the Father. 

The vine is loves me. The vine wants what is best for me. The vine knows that I stumble and fall down and bang my head on things but He loves me and wants me to endure. He says, “You did not chose me, I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide (there is that word again), so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” Even hard-headed experiential learners like me.

A really cute meme.

This one is funny. Consider yourself tagged if you want to participate. It is really fun to figure it out. I got this from Allsorts, a really cool blog with cool stuff. 

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car),

Chocolate Odyssey

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie),
Mint Chocolate Chip

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name),
A-Bro

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal),
Purple Horse

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born),
Brooke Worth

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first),
Wit-Am

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink),
The Red Pepper

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers),
William Clarance

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy),
Cinnimon Spice

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ),
Mitchell Crain (I am not putting my mother's middles since so many use it for password retrieval)

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter),
Greenhill Grandberry

12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower).
Autuum Daisy

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Banana Pantsie

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree),
Toast Pine

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”),
The Sewing Snow Tour

Victoria Returns

One of my favorite magazine is coming back. I love this magazine. It is feast for the eyes each issue. I can't throw them away.

"Victoria offers a respite from the hurried pace of life, an opportunity to nourish the feminine soul. Created for all who love the timeless appeal of romantic fashions, heritage linens, charming homes, gracious gardens, unique decorative touches, and all that is beautiful in life, Victoria promises a return to loveliness."

Go here to subscribe.

May the Force Be With You

THis summer, the children's museum in our area had a Star Wars: WHere Science Meets Imagination exhibit. If you live in our area, you are out of luck as it closed Sept 3rd. If you live in the Pacific NW, you are in luck, it starts there in October at the OSMI. It is well worth the time and money especially if you have little Padawan in your home as I do.

Here my favorite photos from our trip. Which is Grandad and which is the Wookie?

WE LOVE CLONES!!

Hopalong with R2R2 as he calls him.

Friday Night Lights

Friday nights was the first football game of the season. We do not cheer for our hometown team since we don't know anyone who goes there. We cheer for Auntie's school. They are the Wildcats and we love to yell, "Go Wildcats." Auntie teaches Seniors and so she knows just about everyone. Her principal was her roommate in college and so I know her too. We had a tailgate picnic in AUntie's classroom before the game and then cheered on the Wildcats to a sad loss.  Here are Butch, Sundance and Hopalong with three of Auntie's students. The one holding Hopalong is one of those boys you hope your boys grow up to be. Willie the Wildcat is really a girl. Number 62 is a really smart, sweet boy who would also make a good role model.  Fun was had by all.

 

The Plan for 2nd Grade

Here is our plan for 2nd grade. I am finally beginning to get the hang of using the methods of Charlotte Mason.

BIBLE - we participate in Community Bible Study each week.  The twins are in the homeschool group and study the same lesson as I do. They have 5 daily lessons each week which we complete during the day. This year we are studying Mark and Ephesians. Hopalong is in the preschool class which has a seperate lesson but no homework.

Language/Reading- I am going to continue to use Teach Your Child to read in 100 Lessons. This has been a great book for the boys as I can teach both boys who have different learning styles using the same book. Butch is definitly a phonetic reader while Sundance seems to be a balance between phonetic and whole word.  We are reading all kinds of easy readers. For Phonics, I use Explode the Code. For Handwriting, I use Handwriting without Tears. For Language, I am using First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind.

Math - I am so excited about this math program. It is called MEP (Mathmatics Enhancement Programme) You can read about it here.

FOr the most part, we follow www.Amblesideonline.com Year 2

History - We will be reading from An Island Story by HE Marshall .This Country of Ours by HE Marshall and A Child's History of the World by Virgil Hillyer

History Tales - The Little Duke by Charlotte Yonge and Joan of Arc by Diane Stanley

Geography - Tree in the Trail and Seabird both by Holling C. Holling

Literature - Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb
Pilgrim's Progress Book 1 (Christian's Journey) by John Bunyan 
Parables from Nature by Margaret Gatty, selected tales  * Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame  Robin Hood by Howard Pyle along with the poems of Walter De La Mare, Eugene Field , James Whitcome Riley and CHristina Rosetti

Science - This year, instead of The Animal Book for Children by Thornton Burgess, we are going to read The Seashore Book for Children also by Thornton Burgess. My kids are so interested in the seashore and since we have been there both last summer and this summer, I decided to study this book instead. We may do the animal book next summer. We are also going to learn about all the shells we collected and identify some cool fish.

Additional Reading - This is quite a list and I am going to make it my best effort to complete it this year.

Heidi by Joanna Spyri
A Wonder Book by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney
Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales
Pied Piper of Hamlin by Robert Browning
Abraham Lincoln by Ingri D'Aulaire
Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers (some versions say "revised" because P.L. Travers revised chapter 6 herself in 1981 to get rid of some rather nasty racist things.)
Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater
Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle (sensitive readers - be aware that the child loses a hand in this story)
Chanticleer and the Fox - Barbara Cooney's is one version
Along Came A Dog by Meindert De Jong
The Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli

Church in the Cafeteria

I remember the first time I went into a school cafeteria. I was a seven year old, a bright-eyed first grader wearing a new denim jumper with a red apple appliquéd on the front made lovingly by my mother for the first day of first grade. I don’t remember what I ate but I do remember clutching two quarters tightly so as not to lose them and I remember the carton of cold milk.

I would enter a school cafeteria many more times in my life both as a student and as a middle school teacher. The times run together. The faces of students blur. The smell of tater tots, runny gravy, mediocre pizza and sweaty adolescents filled the large room.

This morning,  our church family was forced by lack of air-conditioning in the auditorium to worship in a school cafeteria. The cafeteria was transformed into a sanctuary. The room was filled with God’s children raising voices in song, prayer, and the Word of God. There were no altars, no stained glass windows, no organ music.

Our closing hymn stated “There is a place of quiet rest, a place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God.” This morning that place was a middle school cafeteria.