Saint Augustine and Total Truth

Dad loaned me his copy of Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey, back at Thanksgiving, and it has been most interesting to study the impact of culture on Christianity. While we march on, seemingly liberating ourselves, and 'catching up' with others who may believe in ideas far more progressive, we neglect to see how we are moving further and further away from truth. Truth we all, myself included, may not wish to embrace, but truth just the same.

In conjunction with Jack's reading, I have picked up City of God a translation of St. Augustine's great Christian classic. It is the abridged version, from Doubleday, Image Book. Even with abridgment, there's plenty there. His life seems fascinating.

This spurred me on to pick up and read ahead for Jack, Peril and Peace: Vol. I chronicles of the Ancient Church by Mindy and Brandon Withrow.   This is an easy age appropriate read of his early life, leaving no detail too vague, but adding a little more personality to the important characters in his life.

Trial and Triumph by Richard Hannula gives another perspective appropriate for the younger reader.

Last but not least, I found myself reading the similar story found in 'Peril' in Augustine's own account of Confessions. While I have not read enough to make comment worth sharing, I have taken note that he was just like any human. His life was lived within the confines of culture of a people: a poly-theistic culture, with social norms and influences; flawed and loving parents, who shared what they thought to be best; friends who walked the same path right along side; experience of loss to which all mankind can relate.

Oh Augustine, I look forward to reading and hearing more about your life and thoughts later. For today, this mama must meet the challenges of her culture, marriage, family, and responsibilities.

December Details #40

Simple plans, books, recipes from magazines. And everyone's new best friend-- Pinterest.

Here it is.

School. CC is over till January, but we're still Reading, Writing & practicing our Mathematics.

Reading. We have a wonderful version of The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Robert Frost's Poetry are rich with winter illusions.

Right after Thanksgiving - It Was a Dark & Stormy Night by Janet & Allan Ahlberg.

and The Snail House also by Allan Ahlberg.

FIAR presented to us The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills.

The Runaway Dinner is truly comical along with The Pencil.

At night, we've been reading a couple of passages from The Book of Virtues by William Bennett.

These need to be selected with some care, but most are perfectly appropriate for my boys. Last night we read a story about a man who saved a woman from a the plane crash into the Potomac in 1982. Courage demonstrated. Tonight we read about Abraham Lincoln. Honesty personified.

We also read from BOV, the story of Esther, Queen of Persia, ancestor of Jesus. Also our reading from the Jesse Tree, December 18. (Henry knows what a scepter is now.)

Our Reading from Our Spiritual Heritage brought us to the story about grumbling & complaining. The children of Israel not liking what they had, and wishing they could go back to Egypt.

The crossover is in reading comes in two books, and leads to my personal reading.

Carry On, Mr. Bodwitch by Jean Lee Latham has been recommended academically as well as bearing the Newberry Award. We've made it through the first 3 chapters and found it interesting

My Reading.

Echo in Celebration, by Leigh Bortins. She recommends 'Bodwitch' for purposes of seeing a classical education. Thank you Marianne ( my director at our Classical Conversations community) for your gracious gift mid-year.

Started a new Alexander McCall Smith series - 44 Scotland Street. I loved his 'Ladies Detective Agency' series. It is excellent.

'In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving' by Leigh Anne & Sean Tuohy. Exellent. Inspiring.

'Gluten Free Girl' Shauna James Ahern. Extremely interesting and thought provoking. She has a blog. http://glutenfreegirl.com/

Listening. Handel. Before the Christmas season, we started with Bach because we are currently enjoying an academic program(Master's) focused on the Baroque period. We then moved into Handel, 'The Messiah'. But started with Handel Cantatas. Our cd is from the library, the artists are Magdalena Kozena & Marc Minkowski. Beautiful.

Baking. Country Living December 2010 Tea Cookie Dough & Jam Thumbprint cookies. I used Cherry Jam instead of Strawberry Jam.

Mrs. Field's Cookie Book. Kelley my sister-in-law gave me this at one of the shower's I was given. She was so creative, and gave me trays and all. But this is my go-to chocolate chip recipe. I'm finally going to venture past the one page and make the Refridgerator Thumbprint Fudgy Cookies. Because I've been invited to a cookie exchange & I'm all out of butter! I've got 3 dozen made of the Thumbprints, but I need 3 more dozen.

I made my Appetizer tho. Just a mix of the usual suspects to make shrimp dip. Cream cheeze, sour cream, mayonaise, grated cheddar cheeze. Garlic salt, diced red onion, stalk of celery diced and shrimp in small pieces. The shrimp is medium & I cut it down. Not small canned. Serving with crackers.

Growing. Amarylis. Red. One saved from Baton Rouge, and 2 purchased at Publix. So not really growing, but doing alot of raking/burning leaves in preparation for soil for the backyard garden.

Loving. My life. Peace abounds. Something to do, people to love, hope.

**Picture courtesy of Pinterest. When I find the actual source I'll credit. But this is the picture of inspiration Eric & I are considering for our livingroom/schoolroom. love the order. *sigh*

343- 350 I stopped counting & posting in August/last 1000 gifts post #39, but our school has been much more intense this year. Blogging has been put on the back burner. But as Christmas has come, I'm seeing the fruits of our labors and the gifts of God. Following our plan, seeking His. So I will assign these numbers to above. Looking forward to a week of counting God's blessings with kids as our assignment is to turn our grumbling into thanks, learning from the Israelites in the Wilderness. Lesson's abound in God's Word. Counting with others at http://www.aholyexperience.com/2011/12/3-gifts-you-really-need-to-open-right-now-love-comes-down-video/ . I think I'll print Ann's list for the boys. We saw blue birds in our bird house. They'll love the eggs & birds for places to write gifts. 351.

The Earth is the Lord's

'the Earth is the Lord's

and everything in it,

the world,

and those who live in it.'
Psalm 24:1

This has been our memory verse for the first section of Our Spiritual Heritage Bible study. The period covers 'first fathers' of OSH, creation, & introduction of Abraham.

Our second memory verse is from:

Psalm 146:5-6

'Happy is the person who has the God of Jacob for his help. Whose hope is in the Lord, his God, who made heaven & earth, the sea and all that is in them.'

April, Lord willing will bring us the a comforting and encouraging verse,

Psalm 40:11b

'Let Your loving kindness and your truth

always preserve me.'

These verses are selected for the modified pre-school lessons for OSH chronology box of the Bible. We are all continuing to learn Ephesians 6, along with Jack for his regular academic work.

God is Good at Water - Scritpure Meditation

While reading over at Walk with Him Wednesday at Holy Experience, I realized I wasn't memorizing scripture as often as I am trying to draw on it right now. (Here comes the excuse- new to homeschooling). However, it is crucial. The thought often crosses my mind when I'm not feeling physically, so great, that I'm thirsty, I need to drink more water. So with my effort to drink more water, I'm working on making it more meaning ful. I keep a icy glass of water on the counter throughout the day, and meditate even for a moment on the thought related to water from scripture for the day. The thought is random (some go like this -- 'day 1 woman at the well, never thirst again jn4 -- day 2 sea of galilee, calms the storm -- day 6 ocean here and no further, seemingly unmanagable). It's not planned- remember I'm a beginning homeschooler, and my planning time is already maxed out. But by the end of the week, I can see a scripture that needs to be put to memory. My memory, not the kids.

So here tis -

John 4:13 'Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water sprining up into ever lasting life."

My body is not the only thing that is often dehydrated. Often my soul is, its feeding on all the wrong things. While looking at the other links to this particular Wednesday in the Word, I stumbled upon this book title in a link.

REDEEMING THE TIME: Keller's Counterfeit Gods
This is a link to another bloggers book review. It happens to be about one of my favorite topics, modern idolatry, ie; the wrong things on which my soul is feeding. I have enough to read but may just have to check this one out. It pays to check out other's favorite blogs & links.

So this is what the method looks like, provoking me to memorize scripture so I'll have it in my memory bank. I have a stack of 3x5 cards, and as I fill my glass I think of what strikes me about water in the Bible. I write it down, as the day progresses, I might add a thought on paper, or I might not be able to think of the scripture right off, and don't have time, but I'll make the time somewhere. Drink the water as I go, and the meditation has taken place. No my knees are not crossed in the lotus position(I don't think I could do that anymore...), but my heart/mind is for a moment, and the connection is made, my heart is focused on God's ability & not my own.

One more connection. If you teach Bible class or school at home, you may wish to check out some material that has an entire series of lessons on 'God is Good at Water', as well as an entire sequential Bible study on 'Our Spiritual Heritage.' This is good stuff. Excellent & simple. This material can be used on all ages. I learned more while teaching this, synthesizing all of the material, it seemed from the years before. When I post schoolroom pictures, you'll see the 'purple' cards on the wall. Those are the time-line cards for 'Our Spiritual Heritage.'

Be sure to check out this post at Holy Experience today for tips on memorizing scripture. She has posted excellent resources that are available as well as many techniques. Be sure to enjoy the precious story about the generations of men memorizing scripture.