This Big Family

A while ago I wrote a post about the funny questions we get asked because we are homeschoolers (here). You readers obviously really enjoyed that because that post has been one of my most popular posts ever posted since my blog began!! Anyway, I thought it might be cool to post about some of the funny questions we get asked because we are part of a big family. It's kind of similar to the other one, but still different. :D

"Ten of you? Are you sure?"
(No, actually I can't remember.)

"My aunt/uncle/grandparent/parent/sibling/close relation/distant relation/friend/acquaintance/business partner/workmate had a family with (anywhere from about 5 to about 15) children."
(It's funny how people always come up with someone they know who has a big family, too. :D )

"What sort of vehicle do you drive?"

"Do you fight with each other / Are you well behaved / Do you get along well?"

"Do you all go to different schools?"

(Usually spoken to Mum or Dad) "Can you remember all their ages and birthdays?"

"How old is the oldest / How old is the youngest / What are the names and ages / What is the age gap?"

"Ten! That's so cool. You must have so much fun together."
(Yes, that is quite true. I feel sorry for people in smaller families because I know how awesome a big family is!)

"You must have a maaaaassive house."

"How does your Mum do it?"
(With lots of prayer... )

"What's it like being in a big family?"
(What's it like being in a small family?)

"No, don't bother telling me all their names. I won't be able to remember them."

"Imagine the massive family reunions you're going to have when they're all grown up and married!"
(It's going to be awesome!!!)

"Do you have to share a bedroom?"

"How do you cope with the laundry/dishes/housework?"
(That's what kids are for!!)

"Don't you wish you didn't have so many siblings?"
(Not on your life!)

"Do you have to do chores?"



Are you part of a big family? Do you get asked these sorts of questions?

The Cat one and the Magic one

The Great Peg Wars

The Great Peg Wars. What are they and how did they start?

It all started quite some time ago, when certain younger members of our family discovered it is fun to sneak up behind someone and secretly clip a peg (the kind you use to hang up your washing on the line) onto someone's clothing without them noticing. Yup, that's fun alright.

The idea has often been rediscovered in our family. Sometimes you will be walking quite innocently through the family room when you see someone running away out of your peripheral vision. So you put your hand to your back or go find a mirror... and guess what? There is a peg stuck there! No prizes for guessing who the culprit was!

This evening (I'm writing this on Sunday evening) we decided it would be fun to do it in an organised fashion. So we each armed ourselves with 5 pegs (except Caleb got 6 because of his arm impediment), switched off the lights and then proceeded to rid ourselves of our weapons by attaching them to the clothing of other players.

The rules were simple. If you had a peg attached to you, you were under strict obligation not to remove it. If you managed to rid yourself of all your pegs, you called out STOP and the game discontinued. Then all players would reveal the number of weapons they still had in their possession and count up the number of pegs attached to them. The person with the least number of each was the winner.

It sounds so simple. But it wasn't. Dodging and twisting in the dark when there are three assailants coming at you from three different angles while trying to affix pegs to people (but the pegs keep falling off them because you didn't stick them on properly) is not as easy as it sounds. We had a lot of fun though. It's a cool game. You should try it.

Limericks 101

Limericks are awesome!!

I really enjoy writing limericks. They are actually surprisingly difficult to make, but once you get the hang of it it's not too bad.

Here are some examples of limericks. They are mostly quite well known ones.

There once was a young lady named Bright

Whose speed was much faster than light

She set out one day

In a relative way

And returned on the previous night

-Anonymous

There was a young lady of Niger

who smiled as she rode on a tiger;

They returned from the ride

with the lady inside,

and the smile on the face of the tiger.

-attributed to Edward Lear and William Monkhouse

A painter, who lived in Great Britain,

Interrupted two girls with their knittin'

He said, with a sigh,

"That park bench--well I

Just painted it, right where you're sittin.'"

-Anonymous

A flea and a fly in a flue

Were imprisoned, so what could they do?

Said the fly, "let us flee!"

"Let us fly!" said the flea.

So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

—Ogden Nash

So, how do you write a limerick? 

Well, you start off with a first line. That's always a good idea. The last word should be one that you can rhyme with easily [e.g. flue, Bright, smile, dot etc.] Keeping the first line to around eight or nine syllables is a good idea. Ten or more can get messy.

So here's my example first line. 

A king renowned for insanity

Now we need a second line. The second line needs to rhyme with the first line. [e.g. flue/do, Bright/light, smile/while, dot/not etc]

First and second line smushed together:

A king renowned for insanity

Across the broad reach of humanity

Great! It's coming along nicely! The next thing we need are third and fourth lines.

These lines should rhyme with each other, but not with the first or second lines. They should be complete different rhymes. 

Here we go:

A king renowned for insanity

Across the broad reach of humanity

Instigated this deception

(Which was an awful misconception)

Now we just need to think of a last line. This fifth line should rhyme with both the first and the second.

A king renowned for insanity

Across the broad reach of humanity

Instigated this deception

(Which was an awful misconception)

To feed his egregious vanity.

So there you go! We have our limerick! (Yes, I did write that limerick while I was doing this blog post. Do you like it?)

Let me know in the comments how yours turned out. :D I can't wait!

A + A

Here's another awkward and awesome post for you guys.

By the way, all the 'awkwards' and 'awesomes' are not just thought of on the spur of the moment. I build them up over a series of days or weeks until I have enough to post them. :D


Awkward:

- When you're tired and you can't think of the right word to say so you just make up a completely new one and hope the other person doesn't notice. (They noticed.)

- When you're emailing a friend about something you feel strongly about (and they hold the opposing viewpoint) then they email back and give you a massively amazing argument that you can't refute, so you just leave the email and don't reply and wish you knew what to say!

- Being asked to play the violin for people, then stupidly choosing a piece that you haven't practiced enough but sounds really amazing if it works. You guessed it, I botched it up. That's what I get for not picking an easier piece that I can play better.

- Telling someone you are super excited about something and not being sure if they share your sentiments. "Um, so are you excited too?" "Yeah, I guess so." Whoops!

- Not being able to find something... so you hunt around for about twenty minutes and then you discover after all that looking that it was so close to where you were in the first place and if you had raised your eyes just a tiny smidgen then you would have seen it on the shelf above you. -_-

- Answering questions about being in a big family. "How big is your house?" "What's it like with all those siblings?" "How does your Mum cope?" "Do you fight with each other?" "Wow, homeschoolers are so smart. (seriously, what do you say to that one?)" "Do you help with the running of the family?" "Do you actually help cook?"  "Are your siblings annoying?" "What time do you get up in the morning?" "How does it work?" Etcetera.

- Conversations around the dinner table. They can be quite hilarious. :D

- When you answer the phone and the other person says "Hi, it's me" and you haven't got the faintest idea who 'me' is. Then you decide the person is your friend so you start chatting brightly until you stop for a breath and 'me' buts in and tells you who they really are. It was my boss.

- That awkward 'standing around moment' at someone's house while you're waiting for your parent to pick you up.

- When you are hoping against hope that you will be given permission to do something awesome.... then your 'permission' is "We'll see." Well, at least it wasn't "No".






Awesome:

- Being super excited about something that is completely awesome!!! :D :D :D

- Feeling like you should pray for someone, so praying for them and finding out a couple of days later that they were going through a really hard time just then. God's timing is amazing.

- I've been told I use too many exclamation marks. !!! I don't particularly care though. Exclamation marks are awesome. Perhaps I should reduce them just a little, however...

- Seeing Jana's face light up when she sees the 15 candles on a birthday cake.

- Sponge cake and whipped cream.

- Being able to finish heaps and heaps of your law course in a surprisingly short space of time and feeling really happy. :)

- Finding out you've won first prize in a competition. That's a pretty cool feeling.

- Looking with satisfaction on a clean room. Ah, the joys of housecleaning.

- Remembering songs you used to sing from when you were a little kid and going around the house singing them... then all the siblings who hear you who remember those songs join in, too.

- Filling up an entire page in your diary with Kilroy doodles... I've got the bug bad!

- Psalm 16:11



That's all for now folks... have a great day!

Who Was Kilroy, Anyway?

Have you ever seen any version of this popular graffiti image anywhere?

Kilroy. The cartoon bald head with that massive droopy nose and those big eyes peering over a wall. Those famous words: "Kilroy was here."

We (the children in our family) found Kilroy's signature one morning, sketched on the pad beside our telephone. Under interrogation it transpired that Dad had left Kilroy's signature to see what us kids thought about it. We had actually never heard of it before. So I set off on a hunt around the internet to Find Out About Kilroy.

Here's what The Straight Dope has to say about Kilroy and his appearances.





"Kilroy was here" emerged during World War II, appearing at truck stops, city restaurants, and in military boardrooms. However, the first appearances seem to have been on military docks and ships in late 1939.

"The mischievous face and the phrase became a national joke," according to author Charles Panati. In theory, he was a soldier, probably American, who travelled all over the world scrawling his immortal phrase. Clearly, the graffiti were scrawled by thousands of different soldiers, not a single one named Kilroy.

During the Forties, Kilroy was everywhere. Panati comments, "The outrageousness of the graffit was not so much what it said, but where it turned up." He cites the torch of the Statue of Liberty, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the Marco Polo Bridge in China, huts in Polynesia, and a girder on the George Washington Bridge in New York. There were contests in the Air Force to beat Kilroy to isolated and uninhabited places around the globe.

The appearance wasn't always of GI origin, although it was largely tied to the military services. More than once newspapers reported on pregnant women wheeled into the delivery room, with the hospital staff finding "Kilroy was here" written across their stomachs. Panati says, "The most daring appearance occurred during the meeting of the Big Three in Potsdam, Germany, in July 1945. Truman, Attlee, and Stalin had exclusive use of an opulent marble bathroom, off limits to everyone else. On the second day of the summit, an excited Stalin emerged from the bathroom sputtering something in Russian to one of his aides. A translator overheard Stalin demand, 'Who is Kilroy?'" SDSTAFF Mac suggests Panati is a better storyteller than a scholar, though.

There has been much written about the origin and proliferation of Kilroy.

In December 1946 the New York Times credited James J. Kilroy, a welding inspector at the Bethlehem Steel shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts, with starting the craze. Usually, inspectors used a small chalk mark, but welders were erasing those to get double-paid for their work. To prevent this, Mr Kilroy marked his welding work with the long crayoned phrase ("Kilroy was here") on the items he inspected. The graffito became a common sight around the shipyard and was imitated by workers when they were drafted and sent around the world. As the war progressed, people began opening void spaces on ships for repair, and the mysterious Mr Kilroy's name would be found there, in sealed compartments "where no one had been before."

There are other origin stories, but they're less credible.






So, yeah. Did you find that interesting? Our whole family has gone Kilroy-crazy. Kilroy now has his signature across almost every piece of paper (and some other items, too) in the house. Who cares? I found that history so interesting! There's something so fascinating about Kilroy and his cartoon picture, anyway. :D

Don't Put Up An Umbrella

An umbrella is big and curved and has a spiky thingy protruding out the top. It has a handle coming straight down from the top on the inside, then curving at the bottom at the place where your hand goes. It keeps off the rain. It also keeps off the hail, too, if you have a good umbrella!

I use an umbrella. I use it to keep off the rain and to keep me dry underneath.

In our spiritual lives we can use umbrellas, too. But in this case it is not good - it is bad.

God loves to be with us and talk to us and have a wonderful relationship with us. :D However, a lot of the time we can tend to put up umbrellas over ourselves so God can't get in. He's up above the umbrella and he tries to come down and talk but we're so completely covered by the umbrella that we can't hear him. There's even a menacing spike on top of the umbrella just to try and keep God away!

God sends the rain. He sends his living water and showers of blessings down on us... and what do we do? We put up our umbrellas so none of it will reach us. Now and then a 'hailstone' (that's God trying to get through to us) will pierce the top of the umbrella and break the cloth... or the strong wind will turn the umbrella inside out... but what is our response to that? We have the rip in the cloth repaired immediately or we start using a different umbrella that is stronger and will keep the wind and rain and hail off better.

Let's not put our umbrellas up. Keep them furled, swinging lazily on your arm. Or better still, leave the umbrella at home. Let's walk out in the rain and let God speak to us and have a relationship happening. Let's splash in the puddles and enjoy it. Why trudge through the rain with umbrellas up so God can't get through to us?

Don't put up an umbrella.

Warm Hugs Tag

Who's seen the movie Frozen??? I have! It's so cool! Especially Olaf. What's not to love about Olaf? <3

Anyway, here's a tag from Eve's awesome blog, Eve of Womanhood.

Rules:
❅ Follow the blog(s) that tagged you (optional)
❅ Post 2 or more pics that include your fave characters, books, TV shows, movies or lyrics from songs (they can also be your own edits or pictures).
❅ Tag 5 or more bloggers and tell them.
❅ Answer the 10 questions the blogger that nominated you has written, related to books, characters etc.
❅ Create your own questions having to do with the same thing.

I've already followed Eve's blog. :D So here's the rest of the requirements.
I'm using Frozen pictures because... well.. this is obviously a Frozen-inspired tag. Besides, I love Frozen. Especially Olaf. He's so cute. Wait, did I already tell you that?!?

So here are Eve's 10 questions with my answers.


1. If you could live in any Disney movie, which one would it be?

Frozen would be pretty cool. To be honest, I can't remember watching many other Disney movies! I've seen The Chronicles of Narnia and Winnie the Pooh and Mary Poppins and maybe one or two others but that's basically it.

2. What is your all time favorite book?

Ooh.... now we're really getting into it! I've always really loved Frank Peretti's book Piercing the Darkness. That is the second book in the series, the first is This Present Darkness. I love lots of books though and it's really hard to pick just one!

3. Is there a book you've read that you hated?
Now this is tricky! There is one series in particular that I didn't necessarily hate, we discontinued reading those books because of inappropriate content.

4. If you could live in any book world, which one would it be?
The book world in my imagination.

5. Elsa or Anna?
Anna. If I could choose any position in a royal family it would be a Princess that wasn't directly in line to the throne. That's Anna. She is fun loving, happy and doesn't have the responsibility of a queen. Anyway, I just like Anna.

6. Least favorite Disney Movie?
The ones I've seen all seem pretty good.

7. Potterhead or Whovian?
Pass on this one sorry :D

8. Favorite Disney song?
Do You Want To Build A Snowman? [From Frozen, just in case you wondered.]

9. If you could be any Disney character for a day, who would you be?
Mary Poppins would be pretty cool! Or Sven. :P

10. Favorite quote from movie or book?

You can't help loving (since we are on this Frozen theme) "Some people are worth melting for." by Olaf from... you guessed it.... Frozen!!




If you want to take part in this tag then please answer the following questions.

1. Name one book you really, really, really, really recommend.
2. Olaf or Sven?
3. Favourite movie series
4. Do you snack while you read/watch movies? If so,  what is your favourite reading/movie snack?
5. What is one really embarrassing moment that has happened to you?
6. Favourite Frozen song??
7. Fan of buttery popcorn?
8. Favourite movie quote
9. Do you ever fall asleep reading books?
10. What makes a good movie?

I've Done Them All

I know... I've posted this before. But it's still just as true now as it was then.

I am only one

I am only one, but still I am one.
I can't do everything.
But I can do something.
Because I can't do everything, I will not refuse to do the something I can do.
-Helen Keller

An Announcement

I just wanted to tell you all that I sat and successfully passed my Learner's Theory test this morning!

Now I can start learning how to drive.

Considering that I've never sat behind the steering wheel of a car before, this will be interesting! :P


Here's a wee poem I wrote that illustrates my current position beautifully.

I passed my test 
Now for the rest.

The One Who Stopped

Hey guys!

I thought it might be cool to share what I wrote for a writing competition. The task was to 'rewrite a parable in a modern day context'.

So here's my entry that I thought you may like to read. It's called 'The One Who Stopped' and it's my version of The Good Samaritan parable, found in the Bible in Luke 10:25-37.




The One Who Stopped


Meet Michael. He’s a nice man who goes to a popular Church with a nice car, a big house, a lovely wife and three cute kids. On this particular day he was driving down the open road on his way to a work meeting when all of a sudden his car engine sputtered and stopped.

“That’s funny,” Michael thought. He manoeuvred his car over to the shoulder of the road, put up the bonnet and tried to find what the problem was. He couldn’t. Frustrated, he stood by the side of the road and pulled out his cell phone. It didn’t work. Oh bother! He had forgotten to charge the battery the evening before.

Suddenly he saw someone in a bright red car carefully going exactly 100 km/hr. It was the Pastor from Church. “Aha!” thought Michael. “Kevin will help me.” So, he stood by the side of the road and waved his arms at Kevin… but Kevin kept right on going past without even looking at him.

Michael was extremely hurt and disappointed by this, but he didn’t have much time to meditate on Kevin’s unhelpfulness because he had spotted Pete the worship leader from Church about to pass him in his two year old Ferrari. Michael waved his arms again and even jumped back in his car and tooted his horn at Pete… but Pete gave him an uninterested sidelong glance and continued on his way.

Michael was rather surprised at Kevin and Pete’s behaviour. Nevertheless, now he was really late. He started waving his arms at all the passing cars. All of a sudden, one did stop and when Michael saw who was driving it, he nearly fell over backwards.

It was Adrian, a nineteen year old ne’er do well who had piercings and tattoos in both the usual and some extremely unusual places on his body and a lot of problems besides.

Adrian leaned out of his beat up Volkswagon. “What’s up, bro?” he hollered. Michael informed him of the problem and Adrian came and tinkered with the engine a bit. “There we go, that should fix it for the meantime. Take the car to a garage, tell ‘em Adrian sent you and they'll stick it on my account.”

Which of these three do you think was the neighbour to Michael?

Now go and do likewise.

Pink Balloon + Little Brothers

A friend gave us this balloon. It's massive!!!

Look how big the balloon is compared to Jana.

Guess what happened to it.... :(

Caleb (on the bike) and Jacob (beside him)

Two Terrific Teddies

I know.. I just couldn't resist this post title. Alliteration always appeals (see what I did there?) to me and when this opportunity presented itself, I couldn't help myself. :D Mind you, I'm not apologising for my actions!!!!

So here we have them: our Two Terrific Teddies.

This is Teddy number one: Emmeline, or Emma for short. Made by Sophie.

And let me introduce you to Teddy number two: Isabella, or Izzy for short. Made by Lydia.

Aren't they cute together!

Lydia sewed this bear herself, with only a little bit of help from Sophie. Didn't she do a good job!

Treasure

The following post was written by Philip from The Chronicles of Storyteller. Philip was at the Jumpstart camp I was at, and wrote about one of the Bible sessions. I thought that what he wrote was fantastic and Philip very kindly gave me permission to repost it here.

Here's what Philip originally wrote:

One of the topics being taught was about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Out of all the Bible sessions, these ones were my favourite. I thought that I would touch on one of the things that I learned from it and found very interesting. It both increased my love and want of knowledge of Koine Greek and my understanding of the first recorded sermon that my Saviour gave. Here I’ve touched on the main points that Werner Schreiber, the speaker, gave, and some of my own thoughts and revelations on it.

Treasure.

When you read that word, what are the first thoughts that come into your mind? Gold? Jewels? Precious stones? Money? A chest hidden in the sea?

Treasure can be anything, really. For something to be a treasure, it has to be regarded as one. Regarded as something special. Thus, something can be a treasure to one person while another may not regard it as a treasure at all. Thus, whether something is a treasure or not is relative. One person may not value gold, silver or rare stones at all despite how the rest of the world values it.

The Bible talks about treasure. In Matthew 6:19-21 in says (NIV): “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in a steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in a steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Thus, here is Matthew we are told in verse 21 that where we have our treasure, there our heart will be also. The Greek word for ‘heart’ is here used in the sense of ‘the centre and seat of spiritual life.’ Thus, in spirit, you will be with your heart is.

Matthew 6:19-20 tell us to store up treasures in heaven, and thus in spirit we will be with that great store of treasures that await for us in heaven. So, then, let us go and do good works so that we will be rich in heaven because of our works!

Is that what the passage is actually telling us? That we should do good works in order for a reward? According to the NIV, yes. But is that what the Bible actually says?

The NIV is a translation of the Bible into English. As is the KJV, NKJV, NLT, ESV, etcetera, etcetera. All of them are translations of the Greek texts in which the New Testament was originally written. Translation is a hard job and is never perfect because all languages are different. They express ideas in different ways. Translation is a hard job.

So what does the Greek actually say?

I love Greek and this is my blog. Yet, because of the assumption that most of you (awesome) readers don’t know Greek, I won’t go and post up the verse in Greek. There is, however, two Greek words that I want to touch on.

The Greek word for ‘treasure’ is thēsauros. The Greek for ‘store up’ is thēsaurizō. These words are very similar. In fact, the first is the noun and the second is the verb. Thus, Matthew 19-20 should actually say, “Do not treasure the treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy…but treasure the treasure in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy…”

Why, then, did the translators translate it that way? The Greek word thēsauros comes from the Greek word tithēmi which means ‘to set, put, place, to make, or to set, fix, establish. Thus, that was probably where the translators got the ‘store up’ (NIV) or ‘lay up’ (KJV) from.

Thus, we are told to treasure the treasure in heaven.

But what is that treasure? Certainly not the ‘piles of gold that our good works obtained.’ In Genesis 15:1, God says to Abram in His covenant with him (NIV), “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”

Thus, what is the reward or treasure? God Himself! And if God is our treasure in heaven which we treasure, our heart will be with Him! Thus, Jesus is telling us to treasure God and set our value on Him. Two paragraphs down, Jesus talks about no one being able to serve two masters but that he can only serve one. He closes with ‘You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24). Thus, He is trying to tell us to treasure the treasure in heaven (Who is God) alone and not that which is on earth.

“But treasure the treasure in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20).

God is the treasure, the reward of all who trust in Him. Treasure is not treasure if we don’t think it being such. Thus, we must treasure God. To serve Him is of the greatest value and being in His presence is the reward of His people.




Posted with permission from the author, Philip.

To read what I (Bonnie) wrote about another Bible Session, have a look at my post A Single Eye.

Guest Post: Surely Not

Hello everyone!
Well now I'm back from my very short break with a wonderful guest post written by my awesome sister, Danella. Today both her and I are guest posting on each other's blogs (you'll find me over at her blog Footprints in the Sand) with our different writings on Jesus's first miracle, turning the water into wine at a wedding in Cana, Galilee. (You'll find it in the Bible at John 2:1-11.)

Are you excited? I am!

Surely Not

by Danella Smithies

“Susannah dear, how gorgeous that new gown looks!” remarked Martha in the lordly manner she frequently adopted.

I paused to adjust the rich sequined collar then returned the compliment, saying that her deep purple attire matched her eyes ‘so beautifully’.  I said it, but I didn’t mean it.  I was certain that the effect my adornments created entirely surpassed that of the woman seated opposite me.

“Lydia, would you try these tarts?  They are simply delightful,” I said to a young, yet elegantly dressed girl.  She smiled warmly and shyly accepted the invitation.

A servant girl came and after depositing a tray laden with a variety of delicate viands she proceeded to gather up the empty dishes.  I reached for some fruit then turned to the girl and ordered more wine for the ladies at our table.  Apologizing profusely she explained that they were entirely out of wine, but there was plenty more food if we wanted it.  I tossed my head disdainfully.

“What a dreadful shame,” mused Martha aloud, “that they would be so unthoughtful as to neglect the proper care of their guests.  I would never have thought Rachel capable of such a thing.”  The others all expressed like sentiments and then the talk turned to other matters.

I sighed quietly.  Without wine, I thought, there couldn’t possibly be the usual festivities that accompanied traditional weddings.  The celebrations had hardly lasted a week and now there was no wine to keep everyone entertained.

On the other side of the room some guests started leaving.  I heard them say something about ‘going somewhere where they would be respected and treated as guests should be.’ Glancing across at the sundial positioned in a nearby courtyard, I decided that perhaps I had better leave also.  As I stood up, I heard the sound of excited voices and turned to see several servants conversing behind us, then the girl waiting on our table came over and put a large quantity of wine in the centre of the table.  After pouring a glass for Lydia I looked questioningly up at the servant.  “So you found some wine?”

“No, ma’am, we were all out of wine, until an awesome thing happened.”  Pointing over to where the ‘lower-class’ villagers were dining, she continued, “A young man over there came and his mother instructed us to do what he told us.  We thought he would tell us where there might be a secret stash of wine, but instead he gave us the job of filling the water barrels.  When we drew some out of them, it had become wine.”

I turned back to the ladies and noticed that most of them were looking slightly pale.  I had a strange feeling of wonder and longing that I couldn’t quite reason away.  Something deep within me wanted to believe but I was struggling to grasp what had happened.  I suddenly felt all unsettled and empty.  Maybe this was some supernatural happening?  

About the author // Danella

Danella is the third eldest in a homeschooling family of ten children. She is currently studying Chinese part-time and is enjoying the challenge! She also enjoys playing the harp and piano, painting and puzzling over puzzling maths problems. She blogs at Footprints In The Sand.

Two Breaks

This post is about two breaks.


One is a broken arm. The other is a blogging break.


The Broken Arm
So, on Monday (Queen's Birthday holiday) Caleb was trying out the new skate park real close to where we live. Ben and Johnny had been on it before, but Caleb hadn't. Anyway, he went up this ramp on his bike and didn't realize it's one of those ones that kind of stops in midair (you know the ones?). So he kept going and the ramp didn't. He now has a cast on his arm.


The Blogging Break
I won't be stopping blogging for long, hopefully! Just for a few days (Lord willing) while I get some stuff done. I have been away a lot recently, you know! I won't abandon you forever though. I will be back. :D

Freshening Up

You may have noticed I've been playing around with the sidebar a little. I've also taken another opportunity and freshened up the old My Family page considerably! I've completely rewritten each person's description, changed a lot of the photos and put in a few extra funny quotes.

Have a look at the changes and let me know what you think!

A Single Eye

This was something really awesome I learned at Jumpstart during one of the Bible sessions (which were all about the Sermon on the Mount). I just knew you would be delighted for me to share it with you too. :)

Matthew 6:22 (emphasis added):
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. (KJV)


It's really important that this verse is read in the King James Version. This is one of the only translations that translates that word (I made it bold so you can see which one it is) as 'single'. (Most other translations translate it as 'good', 'healthy' or 'clear'.)

Anyway, this verse tells us that if our eye is single, our whole body will be full of light.

What do you suppose that means?

If your eye has a single focus, your whole body will be full of light. Single focus! Wow! 

So it's not saying that if our eyes are good and work as they are supposed to, we'll be able to see well. That's what a lot of people think. It's saying that if we have one goal in mind, if our eyes have a single focus, our whole body will be filled with light.

Now let's look at verse 23. "But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!"

The Greek for that word I made bold is a word called poneros that can be translated to mean 'full of anxiety'. What happens if we are full of anxiety?

Our eyes flit around here, there and everywhere. We start looking in lots of directions. Isn't that the exact opposite of what we should have: an eye with a single focus?

I want to put it to you this afternoon that our single focus should be Jesus.

Hebrews 12:1-2 NIV (emphasis added):

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.