Sometimes we must fight

In order for our freedom to be true -
Sometimes we must fight for the red, white and blue.

For those who have fought to keep freedom free,
And those who are fighting still for you and for me,
Remember, in order for freedom to be true -
Sometimes we must fight for the red, white and blue.
-L

Thank a Veteran today. For a few go out and protect our country so that we as a whole can remain safe in our liberty, country, freedom, home.

We’ll be at a ceremony in Littleton at 1100, on 11/11. Take a moment wherever you are to join us in prayer, and then go find a veteran!

That’s what we talked about at church this morning. We started in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 15:7-11) learning that there will always be poor people. We are commanded to give generously to the poor (because God is generous to us.) We need to do it without a grudging heart, because God isn’t grudging. We need to be open hearted to our brothers and sisters, the poor and the needy. We are promised that God will bless us, but it may not be in ways we think we should be blessed.

In the New Testament we read that Jesus places a high value on the poor and needy, He expects us to act and react to the poor. My actions towards those in need reflect my allegiance to Jesus. Generosity to the needy reflects the hearts of God’s people. (I John 3:17, Matthew 25:31-46)

What does that mean? Next time you see a guy on the street give him a hamburger or some money, knit hats for the homeless, go to a shelter, collect stuffed animals for children in broken homes, fill an operation Christmas child box, give to angel tree. Why? Because God tells us that when we feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty and clothe the naked we are doing it unto Him.

I will be Your hands and feet
To the people that I meet.
To the hungry, homeless and poor
I will show the open door.
To help the broken,
Find their hope in,
You.

Work through me,
So all the world can see,
I can be Your hands and feet
To the people that I meet.
To know the fallen,
Will find their place in,
You.

Communion was also special today; I don’t know why, it’s the same cracker and same juice….

broken bread,
a cup of wine,
the mystery,
of the Divine.

a crust of bread,
a glass of wine,
to remind me,
of the Divine.

-Liese

While Joel was learning CPR and other first aid stuff with CAP today, the girls and I were learning about art. Joel is a card carrying member now of emergency services, he can help you if you have a heart attack, need a defibrillator, cut your arm off, drown or just need basic first aid. Hopefully he will never have to use his new found skills, but it’s nice to know he can if he needs to. He also learned the important art of directing a crowd at an emergency scene, so if he tells you to do something…do it!

At the art museum we got a backpack for the Latin American floor.

It was the only one left….We did a puzzle and then went to find the vase that looked like our puzzle.

Grace found it after searching for a few minutes. Then we played a cube game where we rolled a cube and then had to find that piece of sculpture in the room, that was kind of hard. Last was the craft, a monkey mask to color.

I think we had another piece to put on it, but I couldn’t figure it out. We went up to the 6th floor after that to see the renaissance paintings and paintings grouped by theme. In the discovery lab Grace found something that she’s been studying in history.

Here is Pissaro’s impressionist painting that could be a picture of my backyard (hint: that would mean still no snow yet.)

Here is a violin, Grace was inspired by it, she says she’s doing one like it when we get home.

Antique furniture is up here too, Bethany and I really like this chair, she’s going to paint a picture of it at home.

In the old building there are lots of skinny rectangular windows that frame the outdoors just like a painting.

Looking down at the Greek theater across the street I’m not blocked by a frame though, I know what else is out there and can imagine it. Isn’t it frustrating to be a painter and run out of canvas? To get to the frame and just end?

We had a special treat today, a group of sculptures from the artist Jean-Antoine Houdon from France.

The exhibit is on loan from the Louvre, which aroused Bethany and Grace’s curiosity (they’re taking French.) Here is Morpheus the son of the god of dreams done in marble.

Here is George Washington done in terra cotta. Houdon was invited by Ben Franklin to come to Mt. Vernon to do the cast for Washington’s sculpture.

Here is the security guard telling me not to take any more pictures (well, imagine that part.) But, he didn’t ask me to delete the ones I already took! We bumped into a friend from our HS group and her sons at the clay table, a nice treat (but we were almost ready to leave.)

We tried our hand at doing some clay sculpture, man….eyes are really hard. I guess you need to like to work with clay and be good at it in order to make something like Houdon.

Back in the other building we returned the backpack, saw the Clyfford Still and Daniel Richter exhibits and popped bubbles in the reactix bubble lab.

Here is a mobile that we were trying to make at girl scouts (it’s hard!)

Then we went around the corner where you could write a poem from a template that asked you questions about the museum. Here is someone’s poem written in algebraic equations, pretty cool.

Here is Grace’s poem:

A rectangle
Shadows in space
An alien
The moon creaking
Like I’m jumping

Bethany’s:

A puzzle
Dark
Clay
Everyone
Scariness

Mine:

A garden of origami
Reflections of water droplets
In a dream
Echoes of laughter
Flying through space

It’s kind of neat to not know what the questions were and just see the answers. I’ll give you one though; the first question was ‘What does this museum (the building) look like to you?’ After a pass though the gift shop we left to go pick up Joel. I’m still at odds with our new museum, I think the space inside is very broken up and has lots of wasted space, but at the same time it’s growing on me. Here are some parting shots for reflection.

Before we got started I wrote another poem. Both poems found their way to Laura who wanted me to read them….out loud. I gave her permission to read them for me. Here’s today’s:

Take a step
a leap of faith,
with opens arms
To My embrace.

I’ll change your life
if you believe,
take My hand
new life receive.
-L

Then ladies who had gotten together the night before started filing up onstage with cardboard signs, on one side they wrote who they were, on the other who they are. Signs went by with words like these: Abused and beaten by my husband – rebuilt by God; confused, angry, bitter – loved; broken marriage by my husband’s pornographic addiction and cocaine addiction – marriage restored; I once was blind (and she really is blind)- but now I see; abused as a child – I know my Father now; wondering what is my purpose – Ambassador for Christ; depressed, suicidal – I found joy and life; I had an affair – I am forgiven….it went on and on about 30 women went by. We were bawling of course, to see what people were and then the power of God transforming them was just amazing. To see that no matter what the old was, God can make it new.

After worship we had communion and then talked about how God restores, revives, renews and refreshes us. We spent the last small group just talking abut life and prayer requests. Then it was time to go, James pulled up right as we finished praying. The kids had all made cards for me and told me about their day. Grace was looking better and Bethany had brushed the girls’ hair and put it in braids or a pony tail. When we got home the dishes were done and the carpet was vacuumed. I was excited about my weekend and wanted to tell them everything.

So I hope you can see the infectious renewal I received this weekend and I hope to be spreading it along.

2 Corinthians 5:17

17 Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

First off, I don’t know how it was humanly possible to go from 5 hours of the doc, go to the GS shop, yarn shop, 2 libraries, Kinko’s, blockbuster, finish the laundry, give the girls a bath, pack and pick up James in 3 hours time. I am amazed that I did it all in such a short time. Anyway, James dropped me off at the Omni hotel for the women’s retreat and booked it over to the GS ceremony. My first stop there after dropping by my room, was the chocolate room. I hadn’t eaten all day and I was hungry. Now at first you call it the ‘CHOCOLATE!’ room, on day 2 you say, ‘CHOCOlate.’ room and by Sunday you say, ‘chocolate?’ room. We had more than just chocolate (like candy corn and caramel dip), but it was good junk food.

We met in the ballroom for out first session which started with 3 worship songs. Over the weekend we had 12 worship songs, that’s just about right (now if we could do that every Sunday and fit it the preaching too!) We played some get to know you games and then sat down to listen to our speaker. Her name is Laura Greiner; she co-wrote a magazine style book for women called Refresh. That was our theme for the weekend. To be physically and spiritually refreshed. So we talked about 2 Corinthians 5:17 which says, ’17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.’ Here are the verses before and after from The Message Bible:

16-20 Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.

We focused on the word “in”. To be ‘in’ means that we are actively doing something. To be in with Jesus means that we are accepting the Gospel invitation and acting. Something shifts when we say we are in. We move from a passive to an active, we transform from just being to acting. So great, we accept, we are in; that is our part. It’s God’s part to be the change agent, the forgiver, the settler of the relationship, the one who brings the ‘new’. Another important part of that verse is the word ‘gone’. The old life is ‘gone’, that’s it, it’s gone. But, in order for something new to come, something old has to be left behind. What is it that we are hanging onto that is old and doesn’t help in our relationship with God? Is it past hurt? Anger? Bitterness? Confusion? Old is comfortable, known, new is unknown, even strange sometimes. In order to get the new we must let go of the old, let God take the past and wipe it, erase it, and take action by accepting the new. We need to ask: what is my purpose? If you are now a new creation you have a new purpose. We are now Christ’s ambassadors, His representatives, we’re supposed to be ‘persuading men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work, make things right between them.’

Words from our theme were swirling around me so I wrote a poem, it’s not great, but it captured the moment:

Renew my life
let me be,
refreshed in Your
Love for me.

Father, God
Jesus, King,
with a new heart
To you I sing.
-L

Anyway that was Friday’s session, we had small group time where we talked about lies that we believe that are the old and how we can change from that to the new. I think in my life the lie is that I can do it all. I have a problem with delegating work to my kids that they can do, I think it’s just my job to do it. I have a problem with frustration with my kids; sometimes I’m just not a very good teacher because I get frustrated when I’m teaching them. But the truth is I love my job and I can’t imagine not being a homeschooler, mom and a wife.

After another visit to the chocolate room I went back to my room and met my roommates Janet and Luciann. We were supposed to have 1 more lady in the room, but she didn’t show up. I was really tired, but we didn’t get to sleep until midnight or later. Janet was true to her word though and woke us up at 7am (gee, thanks Janet…..)

Yesterday we did school and all went well until French. The girls sat by Bethany’s computer and listened to the French lesson and did the activities. Joel proclaimed French a girly language and the stories stupid. The louder they made the computer the more Latin Joel threw at them. Can you imagine a basement with 5 people in it and things like ‘fille’, ‘garcon’, ‘discedo’ and ‘plumbeus French lingua’ flying around the room, someone could get hurt! Joel let them finish but was looking up more words in Latin for: silly, annoying, girly and other words to describe the French lessons.

We didn’t even get to lunch before it was time to go to GS, so I grabbed some Oreos and they ate those. I had a constitution crossword puzzle with us and made copies of that for the girls to do. They half-heartedly did it; without structure the girls tend to run around the room, draw and make crafts and the moms tend to chit-chat. I can’t wait for more people to pick up a day and have some badge work, if all we wanted to do was sit around and chit-chat we could go to the park. I’ll miss Bethany and Grace’s bridging ceremony since I’ll be at a women’s retreat, so James will have to take them and take pics. That reminds me I need to get 2 new vests for them.

We picked up James and dropped off Bethany and Grace at their friend I’s b-day party. It was an American girl, high school musical party. They danced to dance praise revolution, sang karaoke, decorated cupcakes and more. I dropped James and Joel off at the airport to pick up a rental car for tomorrow and then raced back to get the girls. They weren’t done yet so I got to sit and talk. Hannah (who had been with me the whole time) found a cupcake and decorated it, then put the icing bag in her mouth and sucked it dry. Then she walked around eating marshmallows and things of the floor. I just think she was helping Heather clean up! Finally I gathered the girls and we went home for more cleaning up at our house. There’s always something downstairs that needs to go upstairs or the other way around.

Today the guys got an early start for the CAP AE day. They are going to the Platte Valley airpark in Ft. Lupton to see rockets launch, have a drill competition, eat BBQ, hear guest speakers including a retired USAF Col., do glider flights, see the museum, see WWII aircraft in flight, and more. Sounds like fun. The girls and I will be at Cherry creek with Grace and Bethany auditioning for a part in the Moscow ballet’s Nutcracker. If they get a part it will mean every Sat. at Cherry creek until the performance on Dec.12th/13th, and probably another day there for a ballet lesson during the week. That will be the sticking point, which day would the ballet lessons be on? It can’t be a Monday for us for sure! Well, we’ll see. I’m also starting on knitting my hat today. I finished a skein of gray wool and green wool. The green one turned out very nice.

I’m hoping I don’t have to spin another skein of green right now; otherwise I’ll have to make a trip to the knitting store to get some more green roving.

September is flying by
Fall is coming near
With a chilly, gusty sigh
October will soon be here

We remember

On a sunny workday
Planes coming out of nowhere
Thunderous crashes and booms
Suddenly it’s raining white ash
Eerily floating down and covering everything
Is it snowing in September?

Panic sets in
This is no accident
Red fire trucks race to the scene
Soon they too are white with ash
We remember the valor.

Hot steel beams melt and topple
An earth shaking sound
Time stops, people stare
We remember in silence.

Red, white and blue cover the lawns
Flags appear on street corners, buildings and shirts
We remember solidarity.

Seven years later flags have faded,
Metal is gone,
People have mourned,

But still,
We remember,
Together

-Liese

Play on-line fridge magnetic poetry Here.

I had quite a few missing kids at my co-op, but there were 6 boys and girls there to enjoy poetry. I love to see kids that say ‘I can’t write a poem’ come up with some amazing stuff. We started off talking about poetry. What is poetry? Does a poem have to rhyme? What about free verse? We talked about feet, iamb, verse, rhythm, repetition, and more.

We read poems from Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Shel Silverstein and others. We read from some not so famous authors too. We learned that even poets can’t describe poetry, it just is. Not all poems make sense, not all poems are understood and no poem affects people in the same way.

We started off with Haiku poetry. We read an example and then started to write our own. It was hard for some of the kids (who are very verbose) to whittle down to 5-7-5 syllables. I told them that not all haikus are 5-7-5, that’s just the usual rule. Not all haikus are about nature (one kid wrote about storm troopers.)
Here is Bethany’s:

Friends play in the yard
Friends share their toys and ice cream
I love all my friends.

And Grace’s:

Whales swim in the sea
I see them eating plankton
They come up to play

Joel was at home watching Hannah for me, but he’ll write some poetry later. We talked about Cinquain poetry which has 5 lines and follows a syllabic form (or words for younger kids.) I’ll put all the forms at the end of this post. Next was Diamonte poetry. It looks like a diamond and follows the rules listed below.
Here is Graces:

Whale
Big, huge
Swimming, breaching, spy hopping
Humpback, Blue, small, red
Crawling, dashing, swimming
Tiny, food
Plankton.

And Bethany’s:

Chocolate
Creamy, smooth
Dipping, sipping, dripping
Hard, bitter, white, disgusting
Scooping, melting, barfing
Creamy, cold
Vanilla
(one could assume that Bethany doesn’t like vanilla!)

The next kind of poem we went over was a bio poem. I loved the line ‘who needs’ the kids needed: food, plumbing, shirts, water, socks and more.
Grace’s bio poem:

Grace
Wears glasses, happy, goofy, has blonde hair
Sibling of Joel, Bethany and Hannah
Lover of whales
Who feels loved
Who needs food and water
Who gives hugs
Who fears the fan in the dark that looks like a spider on the wall
Who would love to see a whale for real
Who lives in Highlands Ranch, CO
Carberry

A 5 W poem is almost like a story. You are answering the questions: Who, what, when, where and why? People see the answers and may not know the questions.
Here’s mine:

Sampson
Shedding hair like a cottonwood
24/7
All over my carpet
Because he is very hairy!

Then we talked about a couplet and thought about words that rhyme. I shared some of my poetry that rhymes. I told the kids that sometimes a poem sounds forced when it rhymes because the author is looking so hard to rhyme that word. We read a few more poems and talked about acrostic poems and color poems and then it was time to clean up and head out. I need to get my friends to share their kid’s poems, they are really fascinating!

Haiku: Form is 17 syllables, 3 lines: 5-7-5

Cinquain: Form is syllabic (or words), 5 lines
Line 1: 2 syllables (or 1 word giving the title, noun.)
Line 2: 4 syllables (or 2 words that describe the title, adj.)
Line 3: 6 syllables (or 3 words that express action, verbs.)
Line 4: 8 syllables (or 4 words that express feeling.)
Line 5: 2 syllables (or 1 word that gives the title a different name, synonym.)

Diamonte:
Line 1: subject
Line 2: 2 adj. describing the subject
Line 3: 3 words ending in ‘ing’ telling about subject
Line 4: 4 words; 2 describe the subject, 2 describe its opposite
Line5: 3 words ending in ‘ing’ telling about the opposite
Line 6: 2 adj. describing the opposite
Line 7: opposite

Bio poem:
Line 1: Your first name
Line 2: 4 descriptive traits
Line 3: Sibling of..
Line 4 Lover of…
Line 5: Who feels…
Line 6: Who needs…
Line 7: Who gives…
Line 8: Who fears…
Line 9: Who would like to see…
Line 10: Who lives in …
Line 11: Your last name

5 W poetry:
Line 1: Who?
Line 2: What?
Line 3: When?
Line 4: Where?
Line 5: Why?

Couplet: A pair of lines of poetry that are usually rhymed, if paired up they could go (AABB, ABAB, ABBA.)

Acrostic poem: Spell out your name, color, anything and come up with a word for each letter.

Color poem: Think about a color, now use all your senses to describe that color.

Green
Envy in her eyes
A pepper round and sweet
Vines crawling up the wall
Freshly mown grass
Green

That’s what we’ve been talking about at church for the past few weeks. Today we went over these points:

-It’s easier to be an admirer of Jesus than a follower. Admirers can watch from a distance and be largely unaffected. Followers are forced to follow the commands that often turn their lives upside down. (Phil. 2:5-11)

-We are called to: Be a blessing, humble ourselves, not count the cost. Not counting the cost means like if your child was in an accident, you wouldn’t go to the ambulance and say, “Hey, how much is this going to cost me, if it’s over $200 I’ll just take her home and slap a band-aid on it.” You would say, “Whatever it takes, make her well.” You aren’t counting the cost at that point, you are just taking life as a gift. So, we are meant to follow Christ without thinking about how much it may cost us (because we can’t see the future anyway.)

-Where do we find happiness? We are assured the ultimate victory in Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:13, Rev. 21:3, 4, 27, Rev. 22:5)
-Trials make us better in the long run (James 1:2-5)
-Ultimately we find happiness in our relationship with Jesus (Romans 15:13)

There’s a difference between seeking God and seeking God’s blessings. Search for Jesus and you will find happiness; search for happiness and it will elude you. They showed a video beforehand that asked ‘Are you happy?’, I wrote a poem to go with the video.

Are you happy now?