At the beautiful Munsinger Gardens, St. Cloud, MN, Oct. 2012

God is good.  And he is trustworthy.  So no matter what happens, even if I am afraid of the circumstances, I can rest assured that he has my best interest in mind. And not only mine, but my family's, for we all belong to him.  And for that I am very thankful.  How anyone can live this unstable life without the peace of mind and soul that the Bible gives (when one believes what it says) is beyond me. When I become focused on all that goes on in life and in the world, and I don't stop to think of all that Jesus is to me, I get a little taste of insanity. I am very grateful that the Lord never forgets to think about me.

At Thanksgiving time my list of thankful-for's always begins with the things that make me happy and comfortable. But after mentally listing a few of these items I realize that while the object of my thanks is God, the focus of my thanks is still me!  How egocentric. I am determined to thank God for who he IS, as well as for what he has given me. Speaking of things he has given me, I am SO very grateful and thankful to have found a source of free insulin. The budget was just not going to handle another $200+ a month. Well, maybe the budget would have handled it, but I would not have.  God, knowing me very well, gave me a good tip.

Last week we traveled lickety-split to Kansas, to observe the Lord's Supper with our home church family.  It is such a short visit but that one hour of fellowship with our church is sweet. Our pastor and his wife are so good to us. We love them very much, for they treat us like royalty; they also have a role as godly grandparent figures to our girls. They are our counselors, prayer-partners, and encouragers. God has blessed us greatly, putting us into this church family.

'Tis now the season for my famous Peppermint Cremes, so don't forget to make some. Alison made one batch a very few days ago, and they are GONE.  Didn't even get to share any. That is just so wrong. Peppermint Cremes should be savored and eaten very slowly, and that one soft, rich sandwich cookie should satisfy every craving for a good while. But that is not what happens in my house. I think everyone is afraid they are not going to get their share if they don't eat fast. So in two or three days we are Creme-less, and considering their calorie content, that might be a good thing. But who counts calories at this time of year? Oh, and insulin -- did I say insulin?  When are they going to put Peppermint Cremes on the ADA list of free foods for diabetics?

Betz's birthday is next week, and she has no ideas for a birthday gift. She says she is perfectly content with the stuff she has. Her specially invited birthday dinner guest is not a friend her own age, but a sweet eighty-year-old woman who is a fellow volunteer at the nursing home.  I think that is very cool, don't you? 

This week the whole family made a trip to the tech school for cheapo teeth cleanings and x-rays.  Bad idea.  It's a good idea to have your teeth cleaned, but going to the dentist is a lot like taking your car to the mechanic.  You can be sure they will find a way to get more business out of you.  We need to have a retainer re-bonded, some wisdom teeth removed, some small cavities filled, six crowns, an orthodontic evaluation, and a consultation with an oral surgeon.  **sigh**  Well, God will provide whatever we really need, as well as the wisdom to determine what that is. He is good that way.

Our little church is holding its own, and we are encouraged by our faithful few. I think it is really neat how God prepares us to serve him in ways we could never imagine. My husband loves cycling, and it's a good thing, because it's one of few cost-effective ways to reach people who live way out of town. Google satellite maps help tremendously with this endeavor, as he is able to see ahead of time where the homes are concentrated, and where there is a five-mile-long dead end road with two homes on it. Then he plans accordingly. He has ridden mile after mile of dirt roads, putting our church flyer and a gospel message into people's ad boxes, giving wheel-chasing dogs a run for their money, and talking with the curious who want to know what a guy is doing on a bicycle out there in the middle of nowhere. God has blessed his endurance and his faithfulness and, after living in the desert for some years, his renewed tolerance of cold weather. I am proud and thankful to be married to this man.

I have now written a wandering blog novella and it is time to get supper. Thank you for staying with me this long. :)

Wishing all my friends out there a happy Thanksgiving season!

Shopping Research of the Day

If you buy a 3# chub of 80% lean ground beef on sale for $7.98 ($2.66/lb), and 14 oz of  that is fat/water... calculator noises ... that means 30% of the chub is not meat.  The meat is actually $3.65 per pound.

The 93% lean meat is now on sale for $3.49 a pound in a 3# chub ($10.47). Assuming there is actually 43 oz of meat in the chub, (having subtracted 7% for fat and an extra ounce for water),  that leaner meat is really closer to $3.89 per lb.  But you get more meat in the package... and a lot less residual fat.  ...And less of all the bad stuff that is IN the fat.  (That stuff reeks! Didn't cooked hamburger used to smell good?  What have they done to it??)

Looks like the lean meat is the better deal, all things considered. 

 

Is that gross, or is that gross?!

Art Day 1

Amy, Betz, Emily, our neighbor girl, Winter, and I had our first of three days of Barry Stebbing's art instruction (How Great Thou Art) this morning. Wow! That guy has every detail figured out. We had a class of about 80, ages 5 and up.  It was amazing. And fast!!!  It was over before we knew it. The pace was so quick that we had no time to compare our own work to others' who were sitting at our table -- I think Mr. Stebbing planned that to help us all keep a good attitude. Comparison is the enemy of contentment, you know, and there's nothing like looking at someone else's talent to make you feel like you have none. We blended colored pencils, mixed paint, drew lines, shaded, played with perspectives and backgrounds, and learned about some of the classics.  All in 2 1/2 hours!

Tonight's homework (yes, homework!) was to draw and color an apple with colored pencil, a penciled self-portrait, an exercise in contrast, and a pen drawing of a scene from the Bible. It's a good thing I had already planned to take these days off school. Here are a couple of our homework assignments, minus Amy's. Amy has been busy editing photos, and she will have homework to do tonight! 

It will be fun to see what great arteests we are after three days!

Charlie Contrast singing in the shower

Betz's apple

Betz's self portrait

Peter and Andrew at work

Mom's apple

Emily's self portrait

Peter finds a coin in a fish's mouth

More artsy posts to come.

My poor, neglected blahg.  (I'd better not ever get a puppy...)

In the recent life of the Diamonds in the Rough family:

Yesterday was Alison's 18th birthday. I am both rejoicing and mourning! But mostly rejoicing. We are blessed beyond blessed to have an adult (eek!) daughter whose heart is attuned to the Lord and who sparkles inside and out. A woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised, Proverbs 31:30. This year Alison has come out of her shell and become much more outgoing, confident, and comfortable with herself. I feel very humble (and relieved and thankful) to see what God can do with a child who has a less-than-perfect mother. And I am very much looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in her future (all except the part about her leaving home someday!) Alie is still playing violin, teaching lessons, cleaning house for a friend, and working at Culvers four days a week. Add to that the music ministry of our little church, and time spent distributing church flyers. That Culvers job has been great experience for her, and we are thankful for this opportunity. She just loves her job and her co-workers and her work environment. Having so many nice people working all in one place has been a blessing to her (and to her parents), but then, it should be no surprise -- this is Minnesota, where everyone is "Minnesota nice".  :)  The one downside of Alison working is that she can't be involved in many of our home and family activities, and we miss her. She misses us, too! That is the perfect lesson for a young woman. If you are going to work outside the home, there are some important things you will not be able to do!

Sara, unedited

Amy spent an afternoon taking photos of her friend for portrait practice. They turned out gorgeous! Of course it helps a lot that her subject loves having her photo taken and has a beautiful, natural smile.  Fortunately they kept this appointment on one of the very last brilliantly colorful -- and warm -- days of fall. Today the wind is howling and all the beautiful reds and oranges are now on the ground rather than in the trees. Someday our resident photographer will have a business. She just needs a bit of business confidence, and a new laptop for editing photos, which she ordered today with her hard-earned babysitting/shopping-assistant/photo-editor money. In case you are wondering when Amy has time to do school, that is a good question.  Lately she has been squeezing a week's worth of math, English, science, vocab, Bible, and social studies into the weekends.

Elisabeth (Betz) started piano lessons about a month ago, as a birthday gift to her Daddy. This is huge! Betz has resisted music lessons her entire childhood, but she has made big strides already, and I am so pleased with her personal victory in this endeavor. Music lessons are very hard on perfectionists, but good for them, I think. There is such a thing as "good enough".  Betz is still volunteering at the nursing home and enjoying the company of the old folks, as well as babysitting regularly and writing when she can find the time. She has grown up so much this year and has become a fun and happy young lady.

Emily will be nine next week. When I started blogging she was three! I am finding it difficult to wrap my head around that fact. She is still a little girl in so many ways, but she is maturing so much! She and Alison have worked out a point system for dessert. They each reward themselves with one point every time they complete a half hour of music practice (and for Emily, each time she washes the dishes). Ten points buys a dessert. It's sooo hard, but Emily has stuck with it. Good for her! (I need to put myself on their plan!)  She has been working on her birthday list for the past 355 days, as well as her birthday menu. :)

Tuesday we had a sizable grass fire right near our house. There was no reason to fear, since God was right there, his wind blowing the fire to the only area where there were NO HOMES... But still, we began packing up a few things that would not be replaceable, just in case the fire should get out of hand and we would be evacuated.  It made me realize just how unprepared I am for such an emergency! I went to bed wondering if the fire had been started by vandals who might come back at night to finish the job... and four of us dreamed of fire that night.  After driving by the burn area and smelling blackened marshmallows, I decided it was not arson, but possibly stupidity...?

Later this month three of the girls and I will be taking Barry Stebbing's How Great Thou Art three-day art class.  I am excited, not only for the art instruction, but also to meet other homeschoolers from the area and to see others whom we have not seen in a while. Just as we seem to get a routine going, we do something like this and destroy the routine, but for us, this is what life is made of!  As for the rest of school, Apologia is the big winner this year, having converted Amy from a science-hater to a science-lover. :)  (Yayayay!) Ed. Correction: Amy does not love science; she only likes Apologia.  We are now doing both Saxon and Teaching Textbooks math, each being a good fit for two different kids. Vocabulary Cartoons is boosting our use of the American language, and ACE mostly fills in the rest. After reading PlainJane's very informative and complete posts on compiling a high school transcript (Part I, Part II) I am thinking I would be wise to attempt to put something together for Alison, just in case.  I'd have been wiser yet to keep track of everything while she was still in school, which I must do now for the other girls.

Church: Our little church plant is not an event, but a process, and that's where we are. In the process. We'd love it if we could start a church with seasoned, mature Christians who know their Bibles and who are committed to a local church, but the scriptural pattern is for churches to be started with NEW Christians who know nothing but Christ crucified and risen again. Yes, a process!  A church plant can't help being missions oriented, because it IS a mission. A dear friend sent me a link to a blog written by a church-planter's wife, and there is a ton there for me to learn.

Misc: I am miles behind in my correspondence. A dear friend was advised by doctors to say goodbye to her teenage son three weeks ago, but still he lives and is growing stronger. Praise God for answered prayer. I met a man last week who says that while he believes he will go to heaven, he can not say why, and that bothers him. He does not understand the new birth, why it must take place at a given time. The Lord gave me a wonderful opportunity to witness to him. We have made some new homeschooling friends, and found some new music for the girls to sing at church. No, we did NOT watch the debate. I think Romney will win, only because we are given no alternative. And that's pathetic. I have been taking notes with my Bible reading lately, having some questions answered and asking others. Also reading a devotional book that has given me some good food for thought.

But as my little devotional book reminded me this week, God knows my future and has the entire thing, completely known to him, in his hands.  He dispenses it to me one moment, one day at a time, and that is all I need to know or handle right now. Nothing that comes to pass in my future will be a surprise to him. For that I am grateful.  God is good and nothing but.

I wish all you friends out there a warm and wonderful autumn.

Til the next time I feel inspired to post ~

I have had to make a few edits to that last post, so I drafted it again.  (It will be back.)  Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little, that's how we learn the Bible.  I'm still learning!

A New Pastime

The awesome dad here took the younger girls fishing this evening. I say awesome, because fishing is just NOT my husband's thing. He likes ACTION, as in mountain biking -- pedaling recklessly down a curvy, rocky, skinny dirt path closely lined with trees. Or boulders or cactus. NOT sitting motionless on a dock, waiting and waiting and waiting for a fish.  But when Emily accidentally caught a fish several weeks ago, he knew that he would have to bite the bullet and take her occasionally.  Friends generously donated fishing gear, and now we are set.  Fishing will be a wonderful father/daughter activity for Dad and Emily -- at least Emily thinks so. 

Husband graciously invited me to come along on this short fishing expedition, so I went along for the ride. We drove about a mile to a small lake south of us, where there is a public dock and maybe a few fish, which we were counting on due to the memory of several ice houses on the lake last winter. I was going to write a nice post, but since Betz beat me to it, I will just tell you that both of the girls caught a small sunny and we all had a fun time.  Go here and read all about it!

School Time

For he hath made him to be sin for us,

who knew no sin; 

that we might be made the righteousness of God

in him.

1 Corinthians 5:21

Do you realize just how complicated that sentence structure is??  I who adamantly (and foolishly) declared that diagramming sentences was for the old days have changed my mind. Actually, diagramming sentences can really help one to understand the old Black Book, the beloved King James Bible. Beloved to whom, you ask?  To me. Because it's the only Bible that sounds like God is speaking, and not a scholar or my next door neighbor or a bum off the street. (They were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Mt. 7) But that's a topic for another time, and there have been other times already for posts about that.  

As I was saying.  The first comma that appears in the above verse is critical, for it identifies Jesus as the one "who knew no sin". Without that comma Jesus was only made to be sin for those of us who knew no sin, and that just doesn't work, because there's not one soul who knew no sin. That would make salvation available to no one, and that would make absolutely vain Jesus's coming to this cesspool of sin to bring redemption.  Wow, every jot and tittle (and comma) IS important!

So I was going to try to diagram that verse, to show that "who knew no sin" modifies "him", and not "us".  But do you know what happens when you plug that verse into a sentence diagramming software?  "Who knew no sin" gets connected to "us". Ah, don't believe everything you see on your computer monitor.  As best I can tell, the correct diagram would look something like this:

Except that I can't figure out where "in him" goes, because that is referring to Christ ("him"), who was made sin for us....  So if you know any grammar experts, I'd be grateful to have them share their expertise in this instance.  And what do you do with semi-colons? Are the two clauses diagrammed as two separate sentences?  Normally they would be joined with a dotted line, but in this case one of the clauses is dependent.  So I invented that part of the diagram. The rules for sentence structure were made up after the Old Book was written in English.  It is not bound by today's grammatical rules. And as G. V. Carey observed many years ago, punctuation is governed "two-thirds by rule and one-third by personal taste."  

School is in full swing here.  The first day was not very smooth -- that seems to be a tradition here -- but since day two we have done swimmingly.  I am so pleased with my students who have worked ahead tackling decimal place values or algebra (again), memorizing however temporarily the Egyptian dynasties (to what purpose, we shall see), and reading chapters ahead in the text. I am particularly tickled at the change in the two students who were recently saved, who have suddenly gained more interest in the wisdom of the Bible. It certainly does help to know the Author personally.

One of the delights (and sometimes frustrations) of homeschooling is that we can take a little break any time we need one.  This week we have beloved company, and who can think about school work?  Yesterday we traveled to Duluth with our pastor and his wife.  It was an absolutely beautiful day on Lake Superior.  Today, garage sale-ing, a bit of fishing, and maybe a free hot-dog at Customer Appreciation Day downtown.  Let's see, that would be coursework in making change/detecting a good purchase (both good life skills), and later, some socialization.  Next week, we'll be hitting the books again.  Oh, and Alison is going to take her driver's permit test.  :)  Happy day!

Doesn't Emily look like she has grown up a bit?

Curriculum For Sale

 I should have done this two or three weeks ago... why did I wait til the first day of school to organize the school cupboard? 

If you are interested in acquiring the following, leave me a comment or email me:  g johnsons castle @ gmail . com  (remove the spaces):

ACE English Keys 1013-1024 (grade 2, complete) $9 ppd

ACE Animal Science Keys for PACES 1013-1024 (grade 2, complete), $7 ppd

ACE Animal Science PACES 1022-1024 (spiders, snakes, toads and frogs, grade 2, complete) $7 ppd

ACE Social Studies Keys 1025-1036 (grade 3, complete) $8 ppd

ACE Word Building Keys 1037-1048 (grade 4, complete) $8 ppd

Christian Light Teacher's Guidebook for Social Studies Grade 2, $7 ppd.


Everything is in good to excellent condition, from our smoke-free, pet-free home.