The Two Sisters

2009-04-01T21:10:00.003-04:00

CADIE has taken over all of Google.....
She has even taken over The Young Thinker!!!
At least she hasn't taken over this one yet. :)

2008-12-25T12:49:00.002-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Matthew 1:18-25

Pumpkin Ginger Scones

2008-12-21T14:25:00.002-05:00

Here is the recipe for the pumpkin scones my roommate made for the pumpkin week:

from the Taste of Home Magazine

Pumpkin Ginger Scones
2 c flour
7 tbsp + 1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp baking soda
5 tbsp cold butter, divided
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 c. canned pumpkin
1/4 c. sour cream

In a large bowl, combine the flour, 7 tbsp sugar, baking powder & soda, and spices. Cut in 4 tbsp butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Combine egg, pumpkin, and sour cream. Stir into dry ingred until just moistened.

Turn on a floured surface; kneed 10 times. Pat into an 8 in circle. Cut into 8 wedges. Separate wedges and place onto greased baking sheet. Melt remaining butter, brush over dough, sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 425 F for 15-20 min or until golden brown.

Challenge of the Week:

2008-11-18T21:15:00.002-05:00

Bake a new recipe

Baking can sometimes be a relief for stress, we have found.
This week looks to be a stressful week.
Hence our challenge.
In preparation for this week, my roommate made pumpkin scones on Saturday.

Pumpkin Biscuits

2008-11-06T09:54:00.003-05:00

I made these earlier this week:

2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking powder
3 tbsp. sugar
cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice to taste

1/4 c. to 1/2 c. pumpkin from a can of pumpkin
1/3 c. oil
2/3 c. milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
Stir together all the dryish ingredients.
Add the pumpkin.
Toss in the oil and milk.
Mix the whole thing until it is a nice thick batter-type substance.
Then drop spoonfuls onto a non-greased baking sheet.
Bake for approximately 10 minutes. Sometimes 12 minutes are better. They must look cooked and be rather brownish, you know, the way baked things always look when they are baked but not burned.

Do not eat them all in one sitting.

Challenge of the Week:

2008-11-03T11:05:00.003-05:00

Eat more pumpkin.

How do we propose to do this?

How about pumpkin chili, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin yogurt, and pumpkin with sweet potatoes?
And maybe pumpkin bars.
And there was even a recipe we found for pumpkin/corn pudding!

Learn a New Word!

2008-06-02T15:04:00.002-04:00

I learned a new word today.
I am so excited.
Here it is:

Diffusivity: "the property of a substance indicative of the rate at which a thermal disturbance, as a rise in temperature, will be transmitted through the substance."

So basically, you have a substance of something. And then you change a thermal property like the temperature. Of course it takes time for the heat to travel through all that substance and to completely change the temperature of your substance. And the diffusivity tells one something about how fast the substance will change.

observation of the week

2008-05-05T13:37:00.003-04:00

The road should be patched before it gets repainted. Not after. It looks messy after. Especially when some of the patches are in the line down the middle.....

2008-04-23T13:07:00.001-04:00

I passed the exam!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!

Leap Day

2008-02-29T10:26:00.003-05:00

Does anyone have any sort of associations with this day?

I and my roommates all thought of "leap frog" but we thought there must be something else one could associate with today.
We brainstormed and even looked online, but everyone else thought of frogs too, it seems. It is most puzzling to be sure.

2008-02-13T13:22:00.001-05:00

Isn't divisibility such a nice word? It has so many i's in it.

h

2008-02-11T20:41:00.000-05:00

h is called the heat transfer coefficient. It is an interesting little thing that differs between the materials you are using. It partly depends on the velocity the substance is moving at or the air is moving towards the substance at. Also, it depends on geometry and sometimes temperature.
There is no specific way of finding the heat transfer coefficient of something. It is usually found by doing experiments. One of my roommates is working in a lab that is looking for the heat transfer coefficients of various substances. She is excited that I am learning about it.
h is used in as equation for finding the heat transfer of a convection process.

Q = hAdT

Q is usually written with a dot over it, but it is difficult to do so in a post. It is the heat transferred per time. A is the surface area of the substance that is exposed to the convection. dT is the change in temperature of the substance, from its initial temperature to its final temperature after losing or gaining heat. "Change" in something is expressed by the Greek letter delta, but there are no delta's on my keyboard, so I used a "d". It is not quite the same, but similar.

Now I must return to my studying. My exam is tomorrow, so 'tis imperative that I understand these concepts.

Shall I write a nothing post on the day of my twentieth birthday?

2008-01-31T23:19:00.000-05:00

This is nothing.
It is not even worth the time I am spending writing it nor the time you are spending reading it.
But I am enjoying writing it anyways because writing nothing is more fun than writing something.
Especially when the something is technical or difficult or analytical and due soon.
Fortunately for me, I do not have anything of the sort due until next week.
In the meantime, I shall write nothing.

Perhaps you wish to know what I got for my birthday?
Well, probably you don't, but I'm going to tell you anyways.
I got a nice framed picture, two boxes of Thin Wheats (a cheap generic brand of crackers similar to Wheat Thins), and a small jar of cumin.

I am a Thin Wheat addict, I am sorry to say. No other cracker has just the right taste.
My roommates know this, in fact one of them shares my addiction, so they knew exactly what I would appreciate most.

The cumin was a spice that was horribly missing from our pantry. But now that has been remedied. I believe cumin is a must for any cook or pantry.

Thermal

2008-01-20T23:11:00.001-05:00

I have the most lovely equation from my Thermal and Fluids class.

KE + PE + U = Q - W

Now perhaps you are wondering what on earth all those letters stand for?
Here are their definitions:

KE = Kinetic energy. This is the energy in something that is moving.

PE = Potential energy. This is the energy of something that has the potential to be moving.

U = Internal energy. This is the energy inside the system you have designated. It is a bunch of different things really. But I am still just learning what they all are. (which means, I don't totally understand it all myself, and I am just typing away quickly without looking up in my textbook for exact definitions)

Q = Heat transferred, I think. I can't exactly remember this one, but it does have to do with the heat that enters a system or leaves a system.

W = Work. This is work done by the system or done on the system.

I have mentioned "system" several times in my definitions. A system can be anything. Usually, we take a large complicated thing like a motor and we can call the whole thing a system, or we can break it into smaller parts and call each of those systems and so on. It depends on what you are trying to find and what choice of a system makes it easiest to find those things.

2007-12-13T10:28:00.000-05:00

After nearly four hours of studying physics:

I don't really have any common sense. I only use equations.

Which is why I always fail these exams, and I have to wait until four in the morning to finish the homework. It finally makes sense then because I've stopped trying to use equations.

Soooup of the Eeeevening

2007-12-06T16:27:00.000-05:00

Beauuutiful sooooup!

(and biscuits too)

I made a delicious smelling soup for dinner tonight. I hope it tastes as good as it has been smelling.

I took out frozen chicken pieces from our freezer at ten this morning. Then I let them thaw a little while I finely chopped onions, peeled potatoes, and carrots. At eleven, I put the chicken into a large soup pot and turned the heat on. I poured a wee bit of oil in to keep the chicken from sticking too much. After all sides were nicely cooked (the inside was still pink, however) I turned the heat off.

Then I pulled out a glass measuring cup, the kind that measures two cups at once and all in-between on the sides, except I think this one only holds one cup. Oh yes, it is called a liquid measuring cup. But I put flour in it first. Then I slowly dribbled a little water in and stirred it. I continued to do so, adding only a little water at a time. Soon I had a thick sauce. I poured this over my chicken in the pot.

Next, I sprinkled in a lot of different spices and seasonings: Bell's seasoning, parsley flakes, dried basil, dried oregano, a pinch of ground pepper, and some garlic powder. Then I threw in the vegetables I had cut up previously. I filled my liquid measuring cup up with hot water and slowly added it to the pot while stirring the mixture inside. I continued to add water until I thought the soup was high enough and soup-like enough.

It has been simmering on and off all afternoon.
I will be serving it soon with biscuits.

I need a new topic

2007-12-06T16:21:00.000-05:00

Hurrah for rabbits and foxes!
They make such nice predator-prey equations that we can solve using various differential equation methods.
They tell us that the foxes eat the rabbits so the rabbit population decreases.
But when there are no rabbits, the fox population decreases.
So the foxes decrease exponentially and the rabbits increase exponentially and they form a cyclical graph.
And that was the end of my class. There are no more differential equations for this semester.

Wind Near My Ear

2007-12-06T16:18:00.001-05:00

You see,
To me,
To be
A bear
With hair
Covering me
Sounds heavenly
Especially
When I hear
Wind near
My ear.

The Quote of Wednesday

2007-10-31T11:17:00.000-04:00

This quote of Wednesday is brought to you by my differential equations professor concerning the achievements of great mathematicians in history.

"We could probably call them the heroes of civilization."

Sleep

2007-10-22T19:47:00.000-04:00

Jo wants to sleep. I know this because she has told me so several times already this evening and suggested it as a topic for a post when I asked her for one.
I think she wants to sleep because she went to bed after twelve last night and had to wake at six-thirty.

Sleep is an important thing to talk about anyway. As a college student, I see the consequences of the lack thereof far too clearly. Too many friends think they can get by with very little sleep. They even pray that they will be able to function on less sleep so they can get everything done that they need to. I have a solution to that problem that does not involve less sleep. Do less. Really, that is what most of them need to hear (and follow).

I was telling my dad that I felt all my days and evenings were spent studying and when I was finally done, I stayed up late so I could get a little bit of fun stuff in. But I felt I had to cut into my sleep to do all this. He said it was similar to make a financial budget. After budgeting everything you think of some fun things you'd like to do as well. So you look to see where you can fit it in. You can't so you say, "Well, I suppose we could not eat..."
It puts a different perspective on things.

Another thing is that not sleeping is a form of pride. If you are not sleeping, you are not admitting that God made you human with a need to sleep. You are trying to be like God who does not sleep. So that is not a good thing either.

If you don't get sleep, you are more liable to get sick as my friend who slept only one hour a week ago did. She is dropping all sorts of things and not doing too well and she isn't getting the sleep she needs. At least, she wasn't. I believe she has realized her need for sleep after getting sick. But it is best to not get sick to realize such a thing.

Another thing that happens if you do not get enough sleep is that you fall asleep in classes. That is not always the best thing especially if you are having trouble understanding the content anyways or if you have been trying to impress the professor with your wide-awake awareness during class.

Anyway, I must work on some homework now while it is still fairly early in the evening. Then I can get some much needed sleep.

A nothing post

2007-10-20T13:18:00.000-04:00

That's right! Another nothing post!
My brain is slightly sleepy, but I feel like writing something.
So, of course, that means a nothing post is in order.

Now nothing posts tend to pick up some sort of topic of their own, but I really can't think of any at the moment. I suppose I'll just keep typing and see what sort of topic it takes on.

It is sunny today. It makes me happy. I can look out my window and see the sun shining on the yellow and green leaves of the trees right outside. It is a pleasant sight. It makes me wish I had no homework but could instead go to a park and sit and think or doze or read a good book. Maybe take a short hike and play frisbee with some friends. But not at the moment.

At the moment, I must begin my homework for differential equations and strength of materials. I have not yet begun them today because I attended a Bible study this morning. But it is after lunch now, so I must start work. Later, perhaps, I shall go to Salvation Army with some roommates. One of my roommates must find an ugly shirt for "ugly shirt day" at her work. The Salvation Army is an excellent place to find ugly things (and some nice things, but those you have to look a little harder for generally).

So this is the end of the nothing post.
Unfortunately, it is not as interesting as my other nothing posts. I guess I am not in quite the right frame of mind to right a really good nothing post. That requires a certain deadness of the brain which is not quite dead. Then what comes through is that peculiar kind of writing good for nothing posts. I can't quite explain what I mean because I am sleepy, but I suppose if you read other nothing posts, you would get it.

2007-10-03T21:50:00.000-04:00

Agh!! The whole-body materialist view on personal identity as it relates to the case of tuvix is driving me nuts!!!!!!

Friday stuff

2007-09-28T10:52:00.000-04:00

I have successfully completed my first calculus exam. I hope I did better on it than I feel.

Anyway, here is a quote from my Biology book:

Culture is the sum of a social group's behavioral patterns, passed on through the generations by learning and symbolic behavior.

Biology - The Unity and Diversity of Life
eleventh edition page 452

So, i don't know why I had to post that. Kirk told me I did because i read it to her from my Biology book and she thought it was funny or something.
I don't have any Friday Vocabulary today. But maybe I will next week.

The Quote of Wednesday

2007-09-19T22:26:00.001-04:00

Oh my goodness! I just remembered today was Wednesday and I had to post my quote for today!
Except, I don't have a quote for today.
Hang on, I will find one...

Okay, I walked into the kitchen and saw this written on our white board:

Ponder the zucchini.

Actually, we chopped up the zucchini last night, so it is no longer ponderable, but before we did, we named it Zeke. Zeke was the largest zucchini we had ever seen and was one of the first out of Melanie & Laura's family's garden (roommates of mine). Zeke will taste good in zucchini bread.

Bicycles

2007-09-19T22:21:00.001-04:00

Have you ever ridden a bicycle? I have. It is a great deal of fun, but I wish the tires on my bike were in better condition. I have not ridden all year because of the state they are in.
And also because I have not been at home very much.

This is a picture of a wall of bicycles from the New York State Museum. I think it would be fun to have a bicycle with a great large wheel like the one on the left hand side of the picture. It would interesting to ride.

2007-09-17T17:24:00.000-04:00

Look! It is one of those nothing posts I am so good at. See, I think there ought to be some sort of interesting post associated with this interesting picture of a large pottery pitcher from the New York State Museum. But I can't think of one. 'Tis most unfortunate, but true.

Maybe I will post this picture again later when I can think of something to go with it.

9/11

2007-09-11T22:54:00.000-04:00

I read this and it is excellent. Please go read it.

Physics Equation of Saturday

2007-09-08T11:52:00.000-04:00

So here is the first physics equations of whatever day I happen to get around to posting it, which happens to be Saturday. And the physics equation I chose for today is one that shows the relationship between the charge and the potential difference of a capacitor.
A capacitor is formed of any two conducting objects next to each other. When it is charged (has electricity flowing through it), each object has a charge of the same magnitude, but different signs (+ or - signs). The electricity flows from the + charged object to the - charged object and energy is stored in it.
So the equation is:

q = CV

q is the charge of each object.
V is the potential difference between the two objects. It has to do with the energy.
C is the capacitance of the capacitor (or the measure of the charge needed to produce a certain potential difference)

And that is all I am going to say about this seeing as how I now need to go solve problems using this equation for homework.

Jo is absent

2007-08-30T10:39:00.001-04:00

She has many things to do. She has started college and is now appreciating all the walking around and around from class to class and the studying and the backpack pulling on your shoulders.

But she isn't in Differential Equations, so she can't be having as much fun as I am. Differential equations are fun and exciting and my professor even calls them beautiful, which I must say I agree with. I feel so sorry for Jo that she is missing this. But at least she is taking calculus 1 which is almost as fun.

I do not expect her to post much more than she already does. In fact she will probably post even less. So I guess I will have to post for her.

UPDATE: Instead of Friday vocabulary, I think I will do the "Physics Equation of Whatever Day I Get Around to Posting It On". That should be a good change.

2007-08-07T21:58:00.000-04:00

This little munchie started crawling yesterday......

Spinach Pasta Stuff

2007-07-23T13:21:00.000-04:00

So I made this stuff the other day and mum and dad said I needed to post it. So here it is:

This is what you will need:
1 pound on some sort of smallish pasta like orzo, or shells or something like that, cooked according to package instructions.
2 cloves of garlic minced nicely
1 package of frozen (or fresh) spinach cooked
1 container of ricotta cheese. I didn't use the whole container nor did I measure how much I used. You will have to use as much as you want.
1 chunk of Montary Jack cheese grated.

Mix all the ingredients together in any order you wish. Serve cold or hot with salt and pepper.

Thats it. Next time I make it I will take a picture with my new camera.

Random Nothingness

2007-07-19T18:16:00.000-04:00

This literature site classifies "THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES" by Charles Darwin as a science fiction book.

2007-06-28T21:32:00.000-04:00

There is a most interesting little bug on some books in front of me. He keeps opening his wings up quite wide and then closing them again quickly.
He is all dressed in black and has two long feelers that stick out comically from the sides of his head. When he is facing me straight on, I realize how flat he is. His body is thin with his six legs coming out on either side of it. His head is like a little ball, tiny in comparison to the rest of his body. I cannot quite tell for sure, but I think there is a little brown spot just under his head on both sides. He appears to be some sort of beetle species because he has two long wing cases down his back that meet in the middle of his body.
He has been sitting here still while I have been typing. Perhaps he knows I am trying to describe him and is staying still so I might look at him better. Now he is beginning to move again. I suppose that means this description is over.

Now he is gone.

Johanna's 18th Birthday!

2007-06-28T21:11:00.000-04:00

Happy 18th Birthday Johanna!

I hope you have a wonderful year.
Don't forget to register to vote!

P. S. Sorry this is three days late!

nothing at all of interest to you (don't bother reading this post)

2007-06-23T23:00:00.000-04:00

So, I got tagged....

Seven random facts about me that you might not know.
1) This is the first time I've ever gotten tagged in my life (that I know of anyway).

2) I can't get RPI Scheduler to work

3) my sister just figured out my password

4) so I changed it

5) I installed Ubuntu on my dad's old laptop

6) and I'm quite pleased with myself

7) I'm really happy that school is done

That's it. Not very exciting. I always thought it would be fun to do one of these things but they are harder than they look. Now I'm supposed to tag 7 people........like Laura, and mum......... I don't think I know 7 people that read this blog....

So, if you read this blog, and I didn't tag you, please consider yourself tagged.

National Day of Prayer

2007-05-03T17:32:00.000-04:00

In case you didn't know,
today is the National Day of Prayer.

Rain

2007-04-27T17:03:00.000-04:00

Rain is ...
Wet

Sparkly
Drippy
Lovely

It get all over my glasses so I can't see anymore and it does its best to get into my eyes as well.
Sometimes the sun is shining while all the sky is gray and rainy. Then one feels like dancing up and down the road. It is nicest when with the rain comes clean smells and wet flowers.
Flowers that appeared from nowhere to join you in the rain. And the winter is done and the spring has begun. And I laugh and throw up my arms to the sky.
And little worms crawl al over the path and squirrels chase squirrels around trees.
And fresh dirt is laid and pansies are planted and bugs fly up in my face.
(no, wait, bugs don't do that in the rain)
And little greens buds turn to little green flowerets and the tops of all the tall trees.

2007-04-16T21:51:00.000-04:00

SO I was told I had to post something and it had to be about yesterday.........
So, we had a ton of people here yesterday! :) It was fun. We had a time of worship and then we shared a meal together.
One of Kirk's friends from college came too. He biked up here in the rain/snow/slush. He was wet.

Kirk has read 24 books since December 18, 2006. I haven't counted how many I read.
Bethan is the cutest baby in the world! :) I'll post pictures of her sometime. I'm tired.

Friday Vocabulary - Excessibly

2007-04-07T21:41:00.000-04:00

Excessibly:
What one says when one is tired and can't remember how to properly say "excessively".

An accident

2007-04-06T18:12:00.000-04:00

My first car accident, and it wasn't my fault.

I was calmly sitting at a gas station with my blinker signaling I was turning right while waiting for the traffic to clear sufficiently to let me in. I am a very unoffensive driver.

Suddenly, just as I was moving out, a large bump in the back of the car startled me.
My dad and I had no idea what it was, but he said "Keep going."
So I kept pulling out and as I did so, we both looked behind us. A young man with a purple car had backed out of a parking space and obviously did not look where he was backing into.

So now we have a nice scrape and a crack in my dad's rear bumper, but as Dad says, "That's what bumpers are for."

Don't bother reading this post

2007-03-23T17:58:00.000-04:00

I am posting another nothing post.
I have nothing to say because I am lazy and don't want to think of something meaningful to say.
I just like having words flowing out from my typing fingers.
It is almost like having a beautiful piece of blank paper and a fresh black pen.
My thoughts always dry up at that point.
The paper and the computer screen look so inviting, but I can't think what to write!
Hence the invention of nothing posts. Because nobody likes to read nothing, and that is frequently what I write.
As I have mentioned before, there is vast quantity of nothing already out here on the web.
I suppose my bit of nothing will not make any difference, because, after all, when you add nothing, nothing changes. Nothing is increased.

Speaking of nothing, this post is actually something. Computers use bits and now I know binary numbers so I know how a computer would be storing this post. Sort of. My ideas of how computers work are rather hazy. But I do know something about binary numbers. I had a lab yesterday where we hooked up a bunch of wires and got four LED's blinking binary numbers from 0 to 15. They looked so pretty.

equations

2007-02-26T19:08:00.000-05:00

You know what? I have found some equations I absolutely love.

You think I'm crazy, I know, but I really do like these equations.
There are two I am thinking of at the moment. The speed of sound equation
and the velocity equation that uses the speed of sound and the Mach number.

The speed of sound equation is this:
a = √γRT
The flow velocity equation is this:
V = Ma

Aren't they so cool?

γ is a Greek letter called gamma. It has different numerical values based on what fluid you are calculating the speed of sound in. For air, this is 1.4.
R is the gas constant. For air, this is something like 287 J/kg/K.
T is the temperature of the fluid.

M is called the Mach number. It is an important number in aerodynamics. You can find it easily if you know the flow velocity. It is V/a. If you know M, you can find the flow velocity.
The flow velocity is the velocity at which the fluid is moving at a particular point in a flow.
A flow is pretty obviously a bunch of moving fluid.

So now you know the two equations I am in love with at the moment. They are beautiful, simple equations.

And I know I wasn't studying too long last night.

A nothing Post

2007-02-12T22:40:00.000-05:00

My mum found this really funny quote on her gmail :

Smoking kills - If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life.

Brooke Shields

Isn't that funny?

The Quote of Wednesday

2007-02-07T14:43:00.000-05:00

I have been reading "Stepping Heavenward" by Elizabeth Prentiss. It is a most amazing book which I think I must read again to more fully grasp all that was said.
So here is a quote from it:

"Bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Take
what I cannot give--my heart, body, thoughts, time, abilities, money,
health, strength, nights, days, youth, age, and spend them in Thy
service, O my crucified Master, Redeemer, God. Oh, let these not be
mere words! Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon
earth that I desire in comparison of Thee. My heart is athirst for
God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?"

page 184

2007-01-31T23:06:00.000-05:00

Happy 19th Birthday Kirk!!!!!
I love you lots!!
Love always,
Jo

Wednesday Poem

2007-01-17T18:12:00.000-05:00

The 23rd Psalme

George Herbert

The God of love my shepherd is,
And he that doth me feed:
While he is mine, and I am his,
What can I want or need?

He leads me to the tender grasse,
Where I both feed and rest;
Then to the streams that gently passe:
In both I have the best.

Or if I stray, he doth convert
And bring my minde in frame:
And all this not for my desert,
But for his holy name.

Yea, in death's shadie black abode
Well may I walk, I fear;
For thou art with me; and thy rod
To guide, thy staffe to bear.

Nay, thou dost make me sit and dine,
Ev'n in my enemies sight:
My head with oyl, my cup with wine
Runnes over day and night.

Surely thy sweet and wondrous love
Shall measure all my dayes;
And as it never shall remove,
So neither shall my praise.

Poem Game 2

2007-01-04T16:10:00.000-05:00

Here are the rest of the poems we wrote during the poem game.

Joel's poem is first:

Mr. Pare was looking in his dictionary,
He was looking the word "Hairy",
When suddenly his lunch got stale,
And he began to fiddle with a
pine cone, and then began to sew,
without a thimble,
He pretended that he was driving his car,
or was being condemned

I had some trouble reading Joel's handwriting, but I think I got it all. He gets really silly when we play this game.

The next one is mine:

It was unintentional
And very un-understandable
(Is that in the dictionary?)
An accident that nary
a person could repeat.

Somehow the strange old fiddle
With its worm-eaten middle
Was dragged form a box
With a stale smell and engraved fox
to accompany the pine cone fire.

An odor of hazelnut coffee
Mingles with the scent of pine tree
While the fiddle plays madly
Like a music box that's sadly
and terribly out of tune

After being woken by the sound
A bear begins charging around
And smashes Joel's red car,
Recently guaranteed to be up to par
with inspection regulations.

The guests had to leave by sleigh.

All my poems always have a story in them. Mostly they end up that way by accident.

This last one is my dad's:

It was completely unintentional,
the dictionary was rather stale,
so he made a fiddle from a pine cone,
and played it on the phone.

Very hungry - have a hazelnut?
We'll play the fiddle with a thimble.
Still hungry - orange next?
Set the music box on the table.

There's a bear on the car -
it's squashed now, guaranteed.
Don't eat the starfish! it's not far -
We'll ride the sleigh and hitch the steed.

Have some milk - it has calcium.
With the fiddle playing, a drink for a queen.

Dad said a poem written with this list of words would have to be post-modern. Also he was unsure how to fit condemned and coating in to his poem, but he had all the other words. Yes, hungry-orange was one of the words on the list.

Annie did not know quite what to do in the first round, so she just wrote down the list again.

That's the end of the first poem game. I'm trying to decide whether or not to post the poems from the second game we played.

Poem Game 1

2007-01-03T17:42:00.000-05:00

Last night we played the poem game again. You can see the rules and the poems we wrote.
So I thought I'd post our results so everyone else can be almost as amused as we were. I'm not going to post all the words we came up with, but I will put the words we used in our poems in italics.

In random order:
First, here is Mum's:

It was unintentional that I chose the dictionary
for out came a fragrance so stale.
My eyes fell upon the word canary
and all at once I could hear the wail
That mournful wail of the fiddle.
What, do you think that a riddle?
Mournfully high then mournfully low
I'm so glad it's only one!

Although there are supposed to be at least five words from the list in the poem (see the rules here), Mum was holding a wailing Bethan. That seems to have also affected the content of the poem.

Second poem is Noelle's:

My chocolate chip cookie,
became very stale;
For I was playing on my fiddle,
a song about a whale.
Pine cones are very furry,
and my eyesight very blurry,
because I ate one to many,
a hazelnut cookie.
My thimble rolled away on me,
It reversed it's gravity,
And now it's sitting in a tree,
looking as happy as can be.

I guess she was thinking about cookies because we were eating Christmas cookies while playing this game. I am puzzled by the furry pine cone line. I never thought pine cones furry.

Next poem, Jo's:

The unintentional consequence of
his studying the dictionary was
that he became increasingly
stale. "Stop it!" he suddenly
cried. "When you fiddle with
the pine cone you make me
drop my hazelnut into the
thimble! And I can't hear my
music box when you make such
a noise! You sound like a
bear driving a car guaranteed
to run like a starfish! I would
prefer it if you drove a
sleigh, It would improve
the quality of the calcium
in the queen." After that
he was condemned to be
continually coating jellybeans
with chocolate.

I believe she used every word in that "poem". She said it was free verse.

The Quote of Wednesday

2007-01-03T17:25:00.000-05:00

Since I have not found anything interesting today to quote, this is what I came up with:

"If muffins grew on trees, I would cultivate them."
Laura D.

That is a quote from a girl I met in college. I did not actually hear her say this, but her roommates found it so memorable, they wrote it down and frequently tell to one another again when they are in a silly mood. Laura loves muffins, and that is why she said this.

Tyndale and Spurgeon

2007-01-02T22:22:00.000-05:00

On New Year's Eve, our family likes to pick a long movie and watch it instead of the dropping ball (a disappointing appearance - dropping balls ought look more like a dropping ball, not a slowly moving ball). This Eve, we watched God's Outlaw, a DVD about William Tyndale who translated the Bible from Greek to English.

William Tyndale lived in England during the time of King Henry VIII. The Reformation was just reaching England and books like those by Luther and English Bibles translated by Wycliffe were not allowed. Tyndale longed for people like plough boys and farmers and other common folk as well as the many unlearned priests to be able to read God's Word for themselves. So he began translating the Bible to English. Only, he needed it published, and that couldn't happen without a license. But he could not get a license because it was many churchmen believed it was wrong for people to read the Bible for themselves. They said the common people would not understand it without all the traditions of the church, that the people had no learning and would use the Scripture wrongly. Because of this, Tyndale left England and had his New Testament printed in Germany and smuggled into England. Of course the authorities were not happy about this, so they had spies after him. He lived a poor and dangerous life for many years. Finally, he was betrayed and summarily martyred.
But the Bible was being read all over England in English. Sometime after Tyndale's death, King Henry VIII ordered great English Bibles to be kept in all the churches and licensed them to be printed. At last the common people could legally keep and read English Bibles.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jo was reading Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening to me. The evening reading for today was about being renewed in the Scripture every day, feeding ourselves and becoming rooted in God's Word.

"We know the only way to prevent the body from wasting away is to eat meals frequently. It is just as necessary, in order to restore the soul, to feed on the Book of God, listen to the preached Word, and partake of the Lord's table."
Spurgeon, Charles H.Morning and Evening New Updated Edition. Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 2005

She and I agreed that we needed to be reminded of this for we have failed too many times.

And then we realized how great William Tyndale's gift was. For by God's grace we are able to read His Scripture and be renewed directly from the Word.

Oh, thanks be to God for raising William Tyndale, for placing us in a country in which Bibles are legal and in abundance, and for drawing us to Himself.
His mercies are everlasting and the truth of the Lord endures forever!

Friday Vocabulary - Aliquot

2006-11-17T17:18:00.000-05:00

The experimental procedure entails taking two aliquots of the unknown and treating one with test reagent X and the other with reagent Y.

-Qualitative Analysis of Some Organic Functional Groups.
-Chemistry I Ladoratory

So what does aliquot mean? It means to designate a part of a number that divides the number evenly and leaves no remainder.The example my dictionary had was that 5 is an aliquot part of 15.
I think that's all for now.

2006-11-17T13:53:00.000-05:00

Bethan Faith, born November 11, 2006

Isn't she cute??? She is being held by dad.
So that's where we've been. Friday Vocabulary coming right up!!

Nothing

2006-11-10T18:35:00.000-05:00

This is a nothing post. I have nothing to say and it's six-thirty.

Nothing posts are fun to write. One does not need to have a clearly defined idea of what to write. Nor do you have to think about polishing and perfecting what you do write. I guess you could say it was similar to a writing excercise I practice in my writing class called "freewriting." Both types of writing are easy and almost mindless to begin. Both stir up one's thoughts and encourage more thinking. After a couple of freewriting excercises, I have dozens of thoughts flowing through my brain. Sometimes they lead to a good topic; other times they spawn each a dozen more thoughts and topics. I have not written enough nothing posts to find out if they have the same effect on my brain.

How do you go about writing a nothing post? Well, first of all you must sit down and yawn. Then you stare off into space for about five minutes. When you have come back to earth, you look at your computer screen for about two minutes. It's hard on one's eyes to stare at computer screens for much longer than that. When your eyes are suffienciently dry and sore, you finally begin typing. Just put your hands on the keyboard and type in the first sentence that comes to your mind.

A good time to write nothing posts is at the end of the day. You must be just tired enough to want to not think hard, but not so tired you will fall asleep. Nothing posts are also good "fillers" in between several serious posts on a blog. Of course, you must not write too many nothing posts. They work better in small doses.

There are already too many blogs that have nothing but nothing posts. This is not a good situtation. It is an example of shallowness and laziness. Poeple do not want to think and work to write serious posts. Many, many young people and older people write hundreds of nothing posts every year. Can you imagine the quantity of nothingness that is produced?

Unfortunately, this laziness is something we all fall into. My own blog tends to nothing more every time I post if I can spur myself on to post at all.

But if you are struggling with this sin (like myself), know that God is able and will help you.

"Through sloth the roof sinks in,
and through indolence the house leaks."
Ecclesiastes 10:18

BibleGateway.com

Studying the Scriptures

2006-10-30T22:51:00.000-05:00

I'm part of a small group on campus, and we're studying the Gospel of John. As college students, we're all interested in bringing Christ into our daily life and finding new ways to serve Him in the midst of homework, job decisions, and being bombarded with false worldviews. As part of this search for ways to grow in Christ, we thought it would be great if we took a verse from our study and think/incorporate it throughout the week. One guy, Scott, called it "lifework" because he didn't like the word "homework."
So this was the verse we chose a couple of weeks ago:

John 5:39 "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me," BibleGateway

It is a good challenge to find Christ in every passage I read. It is especially fun to find Christ in the Old Testament, for they testify of Him, but not so explicitly as the New Testament.

Friday Vocabulary - Vermiculate

2006-10-13T10:41:00.000-04:00

In the last Friday Vocabulary I did, I had a quote from The Pilgrim's Regress and I defined a word that was in it. Well, there's another word in the same quote that I want to define this time. The word is vermiculate. I'm not going to repost the whole quote, just the part with the word in it so you will have some context.

The Landlord does not make the blackness. The blackness is there already wherever the taste of mountain-apple has created the vermiculate will.

So what does vermiculate mean? Vermiculate basically means wormy So what the guide is saying is that

the blackness is wherever the taste of mountain-apple has created a wormy will

There are other meanings for vermiculate like being wormlike in shape or appearance, having wavy or winding markings like worms or worm tracks, and moving like a worm.
That's all for now.

Wednesday Quote

2006-10-11T13:10:00.000-04:00

Kirk had a test today so I don't think she was thinking about the quote she was supposed to do. So I'm doing it for her. :)
The quote for today comes from Charles Spurgeon. I found it on Girl Talk in this post.

“No man can do me a truer kindness in this world than to pray for me.”
Charles Spurgeon

Which I think is true for all of us.
That's it for now! I have to go study for the SAT now.Bye!!

Friday Vocabulary - Fissiparous

2006-09-29T17:30:00.000-04:00

Hello! It's been a bit since I last posted. I've been trying to keep up in school. Here is my post for today.

I was reading The Pilgrim's Regress By C. S. Lewis last night in a chapter entitled "The Black Hole" where the main character asks the guide why the Landlord made the black hole if he was so good. I came upon this paragraph:

'The Landlord does not make the blackness. The blackness is there already wherever the taste of mountain-apple has created the vermiculate will. What do you mean by a hole? Something that ends. A black hole is blackness enclosed, limited. And in that sense the Landlord has made the black hole. He has put into the world a Worst Thing. But evil of itself would never reach a worst: for evil is fissiparous and could never in a thousand eternities find any way to arrest its own reproduction. If it could, it would be no longer evil: for Form and Limit belong to the good. The walls of the black hole are the tourniquet on the wound through which the lost soul else would bleed to a death she never reached. It is the Landlord's last service to those who will let him do nothing better for them.'

The Pilgrim's Regress: Book Ten: Chapter 4

When I got to the word fissiparous, I thought "I wonder what that means?" So I thought I would look it up and use it for Friday Vocabulary.

Fissiparous means to reproduce by fission. Fission is something that various simple plants and animals do in which the parent divides in two or more parts and each part becomes an independent individual. It also means to break up into parts or to split apart.

Well that is all for today. See you on Monday!

The Quote of Wednesday

2006-09-13T17:39:00.000-04:00

I promised Jo that I would post the quotes of Wednesday again. Next week I've got exams so I'll be giving the quote to Jo to post.
I was going to post something from St. Augustin, but I went to a physics colloquium at four today and my brain is still running on that.
Maybe though, you all might like to hear about symmetry? Mario Livio, a physicist and writer, wrote a book about symmetry. He spoke about it today as a guest lecturer. It was an excellent lecture. Maybe I'll change my major from engineering to physics.
But this isn't a proper quote for Wednesday. I do not have one for today. So instead, I suggest you to go listen to John Piper's sermon on expository preaching. I am not sure where to find it, but I will ask my dad (who downloaded it on his cell phone).

Meanwhile, you can ponder these words from John 1:1 to 5.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."

Hmm, I wonder if there is any symmetry there...

Friday Vocabulary - Vicarious

2006-09-08T17:00:00.000-04:00

Hello!! The word for today is vicarious.
Vicarious means to take the place of another thing or person. It can also mean to endure, suffer, or perform something in the place of another person.
It reminds me of Jesus' substitutionary death on the cross.
That's all for now!! See you on Monday!

2006-09-06T22:07:00.000-04:00

Hello! It's been a bit since we last posted.
This summer we've been rather busy. Kirk is now a Freshman at a near by college. I don't know how often she will be able to post but she said she'll try posting a quote every Wednesday.
This year I'm a senior and am trying to pick up all Kirk's chores as well as help mum but I'm going to work posting into my schedule somehow. I'm going to start the Friday Vocabulary again and I'm also going to try posting something on Mondays. I'm not sure what the Monday posts will be about but I'm open to any suggestions our faithful readership might make.
I guess that's all for now. I'll see you all on Friday!

Second Round of Poems

2006-07-10T22:49:00.000-04:00

These are the last three poems of the six.

Kirk's Poem (age 18)

"Charlie was running
Through words on the chalkboard
When a quiet humming
Disturbed his careful methodology.

"He could concentrate no longer
When he reached the word 'Plexiglass'
The humming became louder
'Noelle!' Charlie shouted.

"'Stop humming,' he pleaded;
'I am studying theology!'
'You can hum somewhere else,' he conceded,
'but not where it will cut my thoughts.'

"Noelle calmly replied, with a smirk,
'I have essayed to be silent,
but the sound will quadruple with each quirk!'
She kicked the tableleg hard.

"'Shark!' yelled Charlie.
He chased her from the room."

Mum's Poem

"Charlie was running to the chalkboard
to write upon it a sum
But as he went he tripped over a cord.
Quiet! said the teacher to him.
Your methodology is flawed,
if you utter a word."

Dad's Poem

"Charlie, running fingers on the chalkboard,
quiet, a certain methodology
for when a word escapes the hoard
of his mind.
Softly, slowly, his thoughts begins to clear,
and as water, or plexiglas,
a shout of joy, no fear,
a sound thoelogy!"

Dad, if this wasn't for a game, it would be one of those abstract poems one has to study in literature. You know, the "what does the author mean?" sort of questions and stuff.

First Round of Poems

2006-07-10T22:27:00.000-04:00

I can't find my youngest sister's poem, so I have only six.

The poems are from youngest to oldest.

Joe's Poem (age 8)

"Charlie had a book of theology.
Charlie had a running chalkboard.
Methodology is the same thing as a tableleg.
God's word is the sword of the spirit.
flaxy seed is the same thing as plexiglass."

It was supposed to rhyme, Joe.

Elle's Poem (age 12)

"I was in a race! I was running!
I was being, oh, so cunning!
I could feel against my chest, the flapping of my chalkboard,
That hung by a thin, red cord.
Why I took my chalkboard, spelled upon it a word,
I don't know; but how could I be so absurd!
It gave me extra weight, making my leg feel like a tableleg
One that was losing a peg!
I was definetly not as happy as a lark,
By the end of the race, no! I felt almost like a shark!"

Jo's Poem (age 17)

"There once was a boy named Charlie
Who lived in a field of barley
He liked to go running,
He was very cunning
And loved his home in the barley

"There was a man who liked to hoard
He lived in a town called chalkboard
He found some plexiglass
and hid it in a crevasse
Then went back home in Chalkboard"

Note: All misspelled words and punctuation are from the actual poems.

Fun Game from Book

2006-07-10T21:46:00.000-04:00

My graduation party and all the yard work it entailed is finally over. So, yesterday we all took naps and got really crazy. That included playing a new game that Jo read about in a book. It was so much fun, we decided to share with anybody who wanted to try to play it.

What you need:
First, you need at least three or four people (the more the merrier).
Then you need a piece of paper and a pencil for each person.
Last of all, you need a long strip of paper.

What to do:
Choose someone to begin.

The person chosen to begin writes a word on the top of the strip of paper and folds the paper over. No one should be able to see the word.

Next, the person passes the strip to the person on their left.

The second person repeats the previous steps, writing their own word underneath the folded bit. Then it is passed on...And so on all the way around the circle
*Note: It is good to have a variety of words. Try to get some verbs in there.

When the strip of paper has no more room left to write a word and fold it over, it is time to unfold the paper. My family chose to go around the circle twice, making a total of fourteen words.

Someone reads the words out loud.

Everyone laughs.

Then the strip of paper is left in the middle of the table for everyone to see.

This is where it gets fun. Each person has to write a poem using at least five of the words on the list in the same order as they are written on the list.

When everyone has completed their poem, they are read out loud. There are a number of ways you can do this. My family handed them all over to Mum who read them out loud and had us guess the author, but you can do it differently if you like.

This is the list of words from our first round:

Charlie

running

chalkboard

quiet

methodology

word

plexiglass

Noelle

theology

cut

essayed

quadruple

tableleg

shark

I will have our poems in the next couple of posts.

Memorizing Psalm 5

2006-06-12T13:33:00.000-04:00

I have been slacking off in my memorizing scripture, and I need to get back into it.
I had gotten Psalm 66 done except for the firming up of the last couple verses. I had already memorized Psalms 1, 2, 3, and 4 so Pslam 5 seemed like a good choice. And that is where I left off.
SO, I will repost the first set of verses from Psalm 5, pull out my index cards and start memorizing.

From Psalm 5:

Monday
v.1 - "Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my meditation."

Tuesday
v.2 - "Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, For to You I will pray."

Wednesday
v.3 - "My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up."

Thursday
v.4 - "For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You."

Friday
v.5 - "The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity."

Saturday
v.6 - "You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man."

So Where Are We?

2006-06-12T13:25:00.000-04:00

Right here.

Check out my other blog for some sort of an excuse for the absence of activity for the past couple weeks.

So, on to new posts...

Friday Vocabulary - Funny

2006-06-02T23:58:00.000-04:00

Funny means Jerry Lewis.
Good night.

Now we are Six children

2006-05-31T11:26:00.000-04:00

Since Mum has released us to share the good news, here it is:

Unconformed isn't the only one having an addition to her family. We are too!!! We shall no longer be five. We shall now be six.

When I was One,
I had just begun.

When I was Two,
I was nearly new.

When I was Three,
I was hardly me.

When I was Four,
I was not much more.

When I was Five,
I was just alive.

But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever.
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

A. A. Milne

That is, unless God gives us another one.

Kirk and Jo

Memorizing Psalm 5

2006-05-15T11:05:00.000-04:00

These are the verses from Psalm 5 for this week.

From Psalm 5:

Monday
v.1 - "Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my meditation."

Tuesday
v.2 - "Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, For to You I will pray."

Wednesday
v.3 - "My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up."

Thursday
v.4 - "For You are not a God who taked pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You."

Friday
v.5 - "The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity."

Saturday
v.6 - "You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man."

2006-05-14T11:59:00.000-04:00

Happy Mother's Day Mum!!!!!!
We all love you much.
Love, your adoring children,
Kirk, Jo, Elly, Joel, and Annie

The Quote of Wednesday

2006-05-03T14:44:00.000-04:00

Maximum - Minimum Value Existence Theorem:

If f is continuous on the closed interval [a,b], then f has a maximum value M and a minimum value m on the interval [a,b].

Ok, so I was studying a lot of math. In fact I've just gotten over my nervous energy high from my AP exam. I suppose you all want something you can understand. Well, I'm too tired to find something, so you'll have to wait 'till next week. Untill then you can pull out your calculus books and look this theorem up.

Psalm 66 - Memorization

2006-05-02T11:54:00.000-04:00

Next week I'll be starting Psalm 5, but for this week I'm going to post the whole of Psalm 66. It solidifies the verses more firmly in one's head if you write them out a couple of times from memory.

Psalm 66

To the chief musician. A song. A psalm.
"Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!
Sing out the honor of His name; Make His praise glorious.
Say to God,'How awesome are Your works!
Through the greatness of Your power
Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.
All the earth shall worship You
And sing praises to You;
They shall sing praises to Your name.' Selah

"Come and see the works of God;
He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men.
He turned the sea into dry land;
They went through the river on foot.
There we will rejoice in Him.
He rules by His power forever;
His eyes observe the nations;
Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah

"Oh, bless our God, all you peoples!
And make the voice of His praise to be heard.
Who keeps our soul among the living
And does not allow our feet to be moved.
For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
You have brought us into the net;
You laid affliction on our backs.
You have men to ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water;
But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.

"I will go into Your house with burnt offerings;
I will pay You my vows,
Which my lips have uttered
And my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble.
I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fat animals,
With the sweet aroma of rams;
I will offer bulls with goats. Selah

"Come and hear, all you who fear God,
And I will declare what He has done for my soul.
I cried to Him with my mouth,
And He was extolled with my tongue.
If I regard iniquity in my heart,
The Lord will not hear.
But certainly God has heard me;
He has attended to the voice of my prayer.

"Blessed be God,
Who has not turned away my prayer,
Nor His mercy from me!"

Binding of the Blade

2006-05-01T16:52:00.000-04:00

Yes! It's out! The third book is out!
Shadows of the Deep, the third in the Binding of the Blade series is out. And a fourth is to come in eleven months, according to the Jollyblogger.
We've got four anxious readers in our family, so we'll be getting two copies.
Beyond the Summerland is the first in this series. Jo and I actually read the second book first, but you should really start with this one. There are just enough strange names to let you know you are reading of some other world, but not so much as to leave you hopelessly lost. It is serious and exciting with out the intensity of The Lord of the Rings (my eight year old brother has read both books).
Bringer of Storms is the second book. This one switches alot in viewpoint, but it is pretty clear when it happens (unlike some books I've read).
So as I can't think what else to say, I'll let Jo post her two cents.

The Quote of Wednesday

2006-04-26T13:54:00.000-04:00

Today's quote comes from John Piper's book Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die from chapter 5, page 29.

"I have heard it said, 'God didn't die for frogs. So he was responding to our value as humans.' This turns grace on its head. We are worse off than frogs. They have not sinned. They have not rebelled and treated God with the contempt of being inconsequential in their lives. God did not have to die for frogs. They aren't bad enough. We are. Our debt is so great, only a divine sacrifice could pay it.
There is only one explanation for God's sacrifice for us. It is not us. It is 'the riches of his grace' (Ephesians 1:7). It is all free. It is not a response to our worth. It is the overflow of his infinite worth. In fact, that is what divine love is in the end: a passion to enthrall undeserving sinners, at great cost, with what will make us supremely happy forever, namely, his infinite beauty."

Memorizing Psalm 66

2006-04-24T12:59:00.000-04:00

I guess I'll start right where I left off, since I haven't been memorizing this past week. So this is this week's set.

Psalm 66:

Monday
v.16 - "Come and hear, all you who fear God, And I will declare what He has done for my soul."

Tuesday
v.17 - "I cried to Him with my mouth, And He was extolled with my tongue."

Wednesday
v.18 - "If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear."

Thursday
v.19 - "But certianly God has heard me; He has attended to the voice of my prayer."

Friday
v.20 - "Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer, Nor His mercy from me!"

And that is the end of Psalm 66. I will be thinking of another psalm to begin memorizing.

Cheesecake

2006-04-21T17:21:00.000-04:00

A photograph of cheesecake

One of our favorite cheesecake recipes is Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheescake. I made this for Dad's birthday.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Begin first with the crust.

Crust

9 Graham crackers
1/4 c. of confectioners' sugar
4-5 tbsp. of melted margarine or butter

Put three graham crackers into a sealable bag. Crush them with a rolling pin or have your sister walk all over them. When they are sufficiently crunched, pour the crumbs into a medium-sized bowl.
Stir in the sugar.
Pour the melted butter all over the crumbs. Mix all the butter into the crumbs. Grab a handful of crumbs from the bowl. If they stick together, the crust is done; if they don't stick together, add more butter.
When the crust is ready, press it into a 9-inch springform pan. Press the bottom flat and push the crust up the sides. Don't expect it to reach the top of the pan.

Now you can move on to the filling.

Filling

2 8oz. packages of cream cheese or nufchatel cheese
1 14oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
4 eggs
2 tsp. of vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until it is soft and fluffy. Slowly pour in the condensed milk while still beating the cream cheese. Add the eggs one by one. Add the vanilla last.
When the batter is smooth and completely mixed, pour a little less than half of it into a medium-sized bowl.
Now melt:

1 c. chocolate chips or 2 1oz. baking squares
1/2 c. peanut butter

Pour the chocolate into the large bowl of batter and stir immediately. Then pour the peanut butter into the smaller bowl of batter and stir.
Pour the chocolate batter into the springform pan. Fold the peanut butter batter in the middle. Swirl the top with a knife.
Bake in a preheated oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 65 minutes or until it is set. Cool the cake.
Store in the refrigerator if you are going to eat it soon, if not wrap in aluminum foil and freeze. Thaw it by taking it out and leaving it in the refrigerator for a couple hours.

Please feel free to experiment with this recipe and come up with your own variations.

Our 50th Post

2006-04-21T17:17:00.000-04:00

This is our 50th post.
Hmm, that is very little for all the time we have had this blog, but we hope to increase that number soon. In fact, as soon as we get our act together and write down all those thought that are rolling around in our heads, we shall soon outstrip this small number.
So, by God's grace, we shall continue until we come to the hundreth post.

Blessings,
Kirk and Jo

2006-04-19T12:03:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I meant to explain why there had been next to nothing posted last week, but a catastrophe occured and delayed me once again.
The verse we leaned on most heavily yesterday was this:

"And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope." ~Romans 5:3-4

Actually it wasn't all that bad. Our washing machine just overflowed and flooded the laundry room and half the kitchen and leaked down into the basement right over the financial records. So we pulled out rags and sponges and mops and cleaned the kitchen floor first. Then we pulled out the stuff from the basement and left in the sun and wind to dry. Nothing was ruined by the grace of God. But we certainly learned perseverance. I was so tired at the end of the day, that I was singing every word or phrase that was spoken or thought (ask Jo what that means). After dealing with an ant invasion in our pantry, we scrambled to get dinner 'cause Mum had a Bible study she had to get to. I think that explains the delay of the explantion.

What I was going to write yesterday, was this: All last week, we've had dreadful cold things (the kind that start as allergies but then get worse), plus three of my siblings had to take their New-York-required-achievment tests.

In conclusion, praise God in all your circumstances and remember that He is in control and keep an eye on your washing machine.

2006-04-16T09:01:00.000-04:00

HE'S ALIVE!! HE'S ALIVE!!!!

We pray that you all have blessed day celebrating the resurrection of our Lord.
The Two Sisters

Friday Vocabulary - Shcwop

2006-04-07T14:15:00.000-04:00

This weeks vocabulary word is shcwop. Now I bet you never heard of that word before. I hadn't either until recently when Kirk told me about it. Shcwop basically means to grab someone hard and kiss them. I'll see if I can get a picture of it later.
So anyway, thats what shcwop means.

The Quote of Wednesday

2006-04-05T11:14:00.000-04:00

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disapoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now recieved the reconcilation." Romans 5:1-11

Memorizing Psalm 66

2006-04-05T11:11:00.000-04:00

Here is this week's set.

From Psalm 66:

Wednesday
v.12 - "You have caused men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water; But You brought us out to rich fulfillment."

Thursday
v.13 - "I will go into Your house with burnt offerings; I will pay You my vows,"

Friday
v.14 - "Which my lips have uttered And my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble."

Saturday
v.15 - "I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fat animals, With the sweet aroma of rams; I will offer bulls with goats. Selah"

Friday Vocabulary - Contumacious

2006-03-31T19:20:00.000-05:00

This weeks word, as you can see by the title, is contumacious. Well, actually, the word itself is not contumacious. I mean the word is contumacious but it's not acting contumacious. Contumacious is the word I'm going to define. So, now we will get to business.
If you are insubordinate, rebellious, disobedient and willfully resisting authority, then you are contumacious. Children are usually contumacious around two years of age. I know I certainly was. In fact, I was contumacious until I became a christian.
So, there you have it. The definition of contumacious. See you later.

The Quote of Wednesday

2006-03-29T13:58:00.000-05:00

Our hope:

"Well Faithful, thou hast faithfully profest
Unto thy Lord, with whom thou shalt be blest,
When faithless ones, with all their vain delight,
Are crying out under their hellish plight.
Sing, Faithful, sing, and let thy name survive;
For though they kill'd thee, thou art yet alive."

From Pilgims Progress by John Bunyan; the song of Christian about Faithful after he escaped from Vanity Fair.

Memorizing Psalm 66

2006-03-27T13:14:00.000-05:00

I was busy all last week with various things, so I never got the verses out. That's alright because I didn't memorize all of the last set.
So here is the set for this week.

From Psalm 66:

Monday
v.6 - "He turned the sea into dry land; They went through the river on foot. There we will rejoice in Him."

Tuesday
v.7 - "He rules by His power forever; His eyes observe the nations; Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah"

Wednesday
v.8 - "Oh, bless our God, you peoples! And make the voice of His praise to be heard,"

Thursday
v.9 - "Who keeps our soul among the living, And does not allow our feet to be moved."

Friday
v.10 - "For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined."

Saturday
v.11 - "You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs."

Friday Vocabulary - Vacillate

2006-03-24T18:52:00.000-05:00

Ok, here is the second word for today: Vacillate.

Vacillate means to sway or waver or to fluctuate or to show indecision or to be irresolute.
I can't think of anything more to say on this topic.

Friday Vocabulary - Reconnaissance

2006-03-24T09:55:00.000-05:00

Ok, this post was supposed to go up last week, but who can think of such mundane topics as reconnaissance on the day that we celebrate the triumph of light over darkness in Ireland? So you are going to get two vocabulary words today. One now and one later.

The word for now is reconnaisance. In military science, it is the process of finding out about the enemy by examination or survey. You can also use reconnaisance to survey land for other reasons like in engineering to prepare for triangulation or in geology when you are trying to learn its features.
Ok, that's all I have to say right now.

2006-03-21T15:52:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!
We love you!
Love,
Kirk, Jo, Elly, Joel, and Annie

We have lots of surprises for when you come home and one of them will make you look like this:

Annie wants to write something now.

annelise wonts too no you dad hape brthda dad mom gudbi

Most of the word are read the way they sound not the way they are spelled.

Soda Bread

2006-03-17T11:48:00.000-05:00

This is the recipe I use for soda bread. My dad, who has high cholesterol, can eat this.

Soda Bread #2 (That really is the name of it)

4 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/3 to 3/4 pint of milk or buttermilk
Raisins or currants

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
Measure all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Mix them together with a spoon.
Pour in the milk (or buttermilk). Then throw in the raisins (or currants). Stir it all up. Then knead the dough with your clean hands. Roll it into a ball. Place the ball on a greased cookie sheet. Using a knife, cut a large X on the top of the loaf. Bake the loaf in the oven for 45 minutes.

The Quote of Wednesday (A day late)

2006-03-16T19:46:00.000-05:00

I have been looking this up. Some places say it was written by Saint Patrick, but most seem to agree that it was not.

Saint Patrick's Breastplate

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism,
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.

I arise today Through God's strength to pilot me:
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's host to save me,
From snares of devils,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in multitude.

Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me adundance of reward.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I rise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity.
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness,
Of the Creator of Creation.

Memorizing Psalm 66

2006-03-14T11:29:00.000-05:00

This is something new. To give Jo and I some accountability, and also for anyone who would like to join us, we are going to start posting Scriptures to memorize over the week. This is the first set.

From Psalm 66:

Tuesday
v. 1 - "To the chief musician. A song. A psalm.
Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!"

Wednesday
v. 2 - "Sing out the honor of His name; Make His praise glorious."

Thursday
v. 3 - "Say to God, 'How awesome are Your works! Through the greatness of Your power Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.'"

Friday
v. 4 - "'All the earth shall worship You and sing praises to You; They shall sing praises to Your name.' Selah"

Saturday
v. 5 - "Come and see the works of God; He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men."

Memorizing and a Women's Conference

2006-03-14T10:56:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday, Jo and I went with our mum to a women's conference. The topic was knowing the heart of God.

The speaker, Mrs. Pope, emphasized the importance of getting into the word of God. To know the heart of God, one must read His word for it is there that He has chosen to reveal Himself. To have the heart of God, one must meditate on and obey these words. Mrs. Pope mentioned five changes in one's life which came from knowing and having the heart of God and which I list as follows:
1. Your attitude towards God will change. His words will become sweet, and your time with God will not be a chore.
2. Your relationship with God will change. He will be your treasure and your all in all.
3. Your heart for others will change. You will consider your neighbors and friends more highly than yourself.
4. Your heart for the world will change. You will have a passion for world missions to bring others into the kingdom of God.
5. Your prayer life will change. Your prayers will reflect God's desires and not your own.
Of course, these changes will never be finished while we are still in these sinful bodies, but the process of change shall go on day by day.

One of the best ways to know the Scripture is by memorization. Mrs. Pope gave some tips to memorize Scripture more effectively, based on her own experience (memorizing over a hundred chapters of Scripture). She recommended getting a small ringed notebook of 3" by 5" index cards and writing the portion of Scripture you are going to memorize on them. You can carry it with you throughout the day and look over the verses, say them to yourself, and meditate on them. It is important to recite those verses you have already memorized over and over again, while you dress, while you do your chores, and while you wait for things, so they will be kept fresh in your mind. Jo and I have adopted this method for our own. As an encouragement, I have been so blessed by this constant placing of God's word before me in the few days I have worked on it.

All in all, this was a most excellent conference which, by the grace of God, has spurred me on in my walk with Him.

Friday Vocabulary - Inconceivable

2006-03-10T19:57:00.000-05:00

I can't figure out how to start this post. Isn't that inconceivable?
So now that I have started, I will finish. The word for today is inconceivable.
When something is inconceivable, it means that you can't understand or imagine anything like it.

I can't think of anything else to say but I don't think that is inconceivable. Good bye!

The Quote of Wednesday

2006-03-08T16:23:00.000-05:00

This passage is from Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening. I found this most convicting when I read it.

Evening of July Sixth

~"How many wrongs and sins have I committed?" Job 13:23~
"Have you ever really weighed and considered how great the sin of God's people is? Think how heinous your own transgression is, and you will find that not only does a sin here and there tower up like a high mountain, but that your iniquities are heaped upon each other, as in the old fable of the giants who piled Pelian upon Ossa, mountain upon mountain. What an aggregate of sin there is in the life of one of the most sanctified of God's children! Attempt to multiply this, the sin of one only, by the multitude of the redeemed, 'a great multitude that no one could count,' and you will have some conception of the great mass of the guilt of the people for whom Jesus shed His blood. But we arrive at a more adequate idea of the magnitude of sin by the greatness of the remedy provided. It is the blood of Jesus Christ, God's only and well-beloved Son. God's Son! Angels cast their crowns before Him! All the choral symphonies of heaven surround His glorious throne. 'God over all, forever praised! Amen.' And yet He takes upon Himself the form of a servant, and is scourged and pierced, bruised and torn, and at last slain; since nothing but the blood of the incarnate Son of God could make atonement for our offenses. No human mind can adequately estimate the infinite value of the divine sacrifice, for as great as the sin of God's people is, the atonement which takes it away is immeasurably greater. Therefore, the believer, even when sin rolls like a dark flood and the remembrance of the past is bitter, can yet stand before the blazing throne of the great and holy God, and cry, 'Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life.' While the recollecton of his sin fills him with shame and sorrow, he at the same time makes it a foil to show the brightness of mercy - guilt is the dark night in which the fair star of divine love shines with serene splendor."

Friday Vocabulary - Capricious

2006-03-03T15:46:00.000-05:00

This weeks vocabulary is actually two words: capricious and caprice. I'm doing two words this time because they are connected.
The first word we will define is caprice because it comes first alphabetically.

Caprice is a whim, a freak, a fancy, or a fantastical goat leap. Basically it's to have a tendency to do things impulsively.

Now capricious, the word I intended on defining. If you are capricious, you are governed by caprice. You are unsteady, changeable, fickle, and fanciful.
God is not capricious, but man is.
Capricious can also mean fantastic or playful. But that meaning is now obsolete.

The Quote of Wednesday

2006-03-01T19:08:00.000-05:00

My brother is getting baptised this Sunday, so last Sunday, my dad pulled out his Westminster Confession of Faith and we had some "profitable discourse on baptism and sacraments." The quote for today is from the Westminster Confession of Faith although I do not know how we stand on infant baptism.
Of the Sacraments

1.Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by God, to represent Christ and His benefits; and to confirm our interest in Him; as also, to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the Church, and the rest of the world; and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in Christ, according to His Word.
2. There is in every sacrament a spiritual relation, or sacramental union, between the sign and the thing signified: whence it comes to pass,that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other.
3. The grace which is exhibited in or by the sacraments rightly used, is not conffered by any power in them: neither doth the efficacy of a sacrament depend upon the piety or intention of him that doth administer it: but upon the work of the Spirit, and the word of institution, which contains,together with a precept authorizing the use thereof, a promise of benefit to worthy receivers.
4. There be only two sacraments ordained by Christ our Lord in the gospel; that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord: neither of them which may be dispensed by any but by a minister of the Word lawfully ordained.
5. The sacraments of the Old Testament, in regard of the spiritual things thereby signified and exhibited, were, for substance, the same with those of the New.

Of Baptism

1. Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church; but also, to be unto him a sign and seal of the coventant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ, to walk in the newness of life. Which sacrament is, by Christ's own appointment, to be continued in His Church until the end of the world.
2. The outward element to be used in this sacrament is water, wherewith the party is to be baptized, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by a minister of the gospel, lawfully called thereunto.
3. Dipping of the person into the water is not necessary: but baptism is rightly administered by pouring or sprinkling water upon the person.
4. Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, but also the infants of one or both believing parents, are to be baptized.
5. Although it be a great sin to contemn or neglect this ordinance, yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it, as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it; or, that all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated.
6. The efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered; yet notwithstanding, by the right use of this ordinance, the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited and conferred, by the Holy Ghost, to such (whether of age of infants) as that grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God's own will, in His appointed time.
7. The sacrament of baptism is but once to be administered unto any person.

Something New

2006-02-24T19:23:00.000-05:00

Just a moment, my little sister wants to write something.

jan and dan can see ted. fun fox dan can go mother wag no wag no. let sam have the ball. jan and sam .

Now back to business. Kirk and I decided to have a vocabulary word every Friday. So that will be my job.
The first word is Occidental. I wouldn't even have heard of this word except that I have been getting a lot of college things and I got one from Occidental College.

Occidental:
Western, of the Occident, its people, or their culture. A native of the Occident, or a member of a people native to that region. Opposed to oriental.
Orient means from the East and Occident means from the West.
The Occident is the countries west of Asia. Specifically, (a) formerly, Europe; (b) now, also, the Western Hemisphere.
So all of us in the Western Hemisphere are Occidental

2006-02-22T21:48:00.000-05:00

A couple months ago, the head teacher of the pre-k Sunday-school class at our church asked Kirk and I if we would like to teach. We have both been helping since we were about ten and thought we might possibly be able to. So any way, we are teaching our first class this coming Sunday. We are kind of nervous and were wondering if you all could pray that it will go well.
Thank you!! :)

Carolyn Kimberly Bradshaw

2006-02-20T21:45:00.000-05:00

Congratulations
to Mr. and Mrs. Bradshaw!

Carolyn Kimberly Bradshaw was born today. Pictures are here at Girltalk. And we think she looks like her mother.

The Two Sisters

St. Valentine's Day

2006-02-14T23:03:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!
Over here, the Young Thinker tried to give historical background to this day, but didn't succeed, so it went off into something else.
However, Mum at Sower's Corner better express the Thinker's thoughts in an excellent post on Valentine's Day, God's way.
So please check it out.

Dinner for Mum and Dad

2006-02-14T22:46:00.000-05:00

This is the way I and my siblings are celebrating Valentine's Day. We are blessing our mum and dad with a special dinner tomorrow night (it had to be then 'cause Dad works late on Tuesdays). We are fixing the dining room up to look as much like a fancy restaurant as our dining room can look like. Then we are making a really nice dinner. There will be a Greek casserole (I like to try new things), salad, and other stuff which I can't write 'cause Mum and Dad read this blog. :^D
Then us children will eat early and spend the evening upstairs doing things together.
I don't have the recipe for the Greek casserole here, but I can put our salad recipe down.

SALAD RECIPE:
Lots of lettuce-any kind (iceberg, romaine, spinach leaves, red leaf cabbage)
Chopped almonds (salted and toasted one taste best)
Mandarin oranges (these come in little cans)
Cucumbers
Dried Cranberries
Cherry tomatoes

Wash and chop the lettuce. Wash the cucumbers and slice them. Wash the tomatoes and slice them in half. Toss everything into a big bowl and mix it around with your clean hands (alright, you could use salad tongs too).

END OF SALAD RECIPE

Now you can make this interesting salad for your own parents.