The First Book I Read This Year

On the one hand, I hesitate to even classify this as a book I read this year, the reason being that it's really more of a picture book featuring the incredible paintings of a Dutch artist, Rien Poortvliet.  His talent is off the charts, not just in the quality of each painting, but in the abundance of them!  How did he do it?

On the other hand, it IS a book, and I DID read it, so I am going to begin my official 2021 reading record with this one after all.  :)

I've already mentioned the magnificence of the art, but the text, limited as it is, packs a powerful punch as well.  While reading it, I felt my spirit soar as Rien's words inspired me to STAND IN AWE of the mind-boggling creativity God displays through the nearly-infinite variety in the physical creation--specifically, through animals.  Who could have come up with such marvelous wonders?  Only a marvelous God.  It truly defies comprehension.

What's more, Rien pointed out that, during their year together on the ark, Noah may have really enjoyed his time with the animals.  He may have studied them, gotten to know them, marveled at them, and even--as Rien made clear through one particularly poignant illustration--missed them when they left the ark and went off to repopulate the earth.  I hadn't ever thought of that before--my imagination having been limited to the level of "wow, it must have stunk on the ark; I'm sure Noah couldn't wait to get off it," rather than being lifted to the "what delight Noah must have felt when God brought elephants and chipmunks and giraffes and kangaroos and otters and tigers to the ark!" level of thinking.

Rien mentions towards the end of the book that his intention was to write a heartfelt hymn of praise, and I believe he succeeded beyond his imagining!  I can't think that someone could read this book, carefully ponder the thoughts he expresses, enjoy the pleasure of looking at his multitude of paintings contained therein, and NOT feel his or her soul soar.

Surely, the heavens...and the earth...and the zebras...and the wild boars...and the field mice...and the hands of the artist...proclaim the glory of God and the utter impossibility of all of this happening by chance!  As Albert Einstein said (as quoted in the book), "The idea that this universe in all its million-fold order and precision is the result of blind chance is as credible as the idea that if a printshop blew up all the type would fall down again in the finished and faultless form of the dictionary."  How ridiculous!!

This wasn't perhaps an impressive (from a literary standpoint) book with which to start my 2021 list, but as it turns out, it was the perfect way to begin!

"My Dear Mother's Face"

In the process of emptying not only my own house because of our move to northern Virginia, but also my parents' house because of my dad's move into a retirement community, we have found quite a few treasures, to say the least!  :)  The most precious to me by far are the paper treasures: old family pictures, letters, journals, etc.  I simply cannot bear to throw them out without taking the time to look through them and capture them in some way for this electronic age!  What that really means is that both my dad and I have, in our new homes, some storage boxes completely stuffed with pictures and papers, awaiting the time "when life settles down" and I have time to deal with them.  :)  

In the latest load I brought back with me to our new house were two photo albums that contain images that are, to me, priceless--like this photo of my mother, sitting in her parents' kitchen, probably in the 1970s.  I love her dear face.  And that reminds me of a poem I read in a little book my parents had on their shelves, written by a local man that is, I suspect, either somehow related to my family or else known by my family for years and years.

My Dear Mother's Face

~ John Michael Roller ~

While looking upon the pictures of life

When the day was past with its toil and strife,

I sought for a scene in memory's hall

The most beautiful there that I could recall.

I viewed with awe a mountain scene;

Another of ocean with sunset sheen;

But of all that hung in the gallery's space,

The fairest indeed was my dear mother's face.

The time I remember as yesterday

When we stood on the porch near the close of the day,

The evening glow where the vines interlace

Revealed the lines in her lovely face.

She spoke of those in her life who were dear,

In tones which always would cast out fear;

Through all life's burdens she was able to bear,

In all our sorrows she was ready to share.

And then came the news to a distant state

That I hasten home, lest I be too late

To see upon earth that familiar face

Which helped me to God and saving grace.

Her body now lies on a nearby slope;

Her spirit within gives courage and hope;

Neither time nor change will ever efface

The memory I hold of my dear mother's face.

~ photo by Robin Skievaski Photography ~ 

Benjamin Reads Thomas

Benjamin's favorite books these days are a set of three Thomas the Tank Engine board books that we've had since Josiah was our little guy toddling around!  Their edges might be a little worn, but they're still as good as ever; and the delight they bring to our youngest son--as they have done to his older siblings through the years--is certainly difficult to measure because it's such a large quantity! And speaking of large quantities, I wonder how many times I've read these books during the past 15 years.  If I had a dollar for every time...  :)

Benjamin's latest fun is "reading" the books himself.  It's funny: every single page sounds exactly alike when he reads it!!  ;-)

 We adore this little guy!!

I Shall Be Random, Vol. 13

I sat down at the computer tonight, intending to do a blog post with a little bit of this and a little bit of that in it.  When I looked up "I Shall Be Random" to see what volume number I was ready for, I discovered this long-abandoned volume 13 post lurking in my drafts folder, begun way back in February of this year.  I had jotted down a few thoughts in the first four points.  Let's see if I can go back in time mentally and finish out these bits and pieces from eight months ago before I dive into the new ones...

~ 1 ~

One of my all-time favorite things to do with my children is read to them.  Whether it's the Bible, a history book, poetry, a work of fiction, science, or whatever else, there is something special that happens when we share the wonder of the written word--the way the same 26 letters, rearranged, express so vividly the entire range of human experience. I never get tired of it.

Recently, here are two bits of writing that we particularly enjoyed.  (There are so many more, but I can't quote them all!)

From a silly poem by Mary Mapes Dodge, "The Mayor of Scuttleton"...
"He loaded a shovel and tried to shoot,
And killed the calf in the leg of his boot."

From Anne of Avonlea, in the chapter "Marilla Adopts Twins"...
"You're never safe from being surprised till you're dead." - Mrs. Rachel Lynde (Oh, good old Mrs. Lynde, you fountain of wisdom, you!)

~ 2 ~

Every so often, I announce a special giving project that I would like to do with the kids: giving money to Heifer International, for example, or pooling our money to help support a friend who spent the summer serving as a missionary in an Arab country.  At the beginning of this year, one of the rewarding projects we did was buying food for the food pantry, and the kids chipped in generously with their own money.  It was sweet indeed to have them each raid their personal banks and decide how much they wanted to give, and then take the list of needed food to the store and let them help to choose the food items we would purchase for the food pantry.  Every time I bring up an opportunity like this, I am blown away by how eager they are to help and how freely they give from their own money.  They inspire me!

~ 3 ~

Josiah had a very active tournament season last year with NCFCA, and I was proud of him over and over as he developed his communication skills.  But one of the unseen acts he did that made me just as proud of him as anything public he did was helping David and Tobin with their interps (a kind of dramatic speech) that they each did at one of the tournaments we went to (this particular tournament had a level of competition for the younger kids--not something that all the tournaments do).  What a joy to sit back and watch him coach his younger brothers -- not only because he saved me a lot of work! ;-) -- but because it demonstrated his servant's heart.

~ 4 ~

One night at the supper table, Moriah made us all laugh uproariously when she asked, "Dad, do I have nipples?"  :)   She meant dimples, and probably wasn't sure why we all burst out in laughter.  :)  Nipples...dimples...it's easy to see how a young child could get those two similar words confused!  :)


And now, on to the new snippets from much more recently than February!  :)

~ 5 ~

Sometimes when I see Shav playing, I'm reminded so much of how Josiah played in his younger years.  They both had/have such focus, such ability to concentrate, such delight in using various objects to stand for soldiers and armies and other entities, such complicated battle plans devised in their creative minds, such strategy!

~ 6 ~

When I was pregnant with Tobin, I was vacuuming one day and, as I crouched slightly, something caught in my knee, and then such intense pain seized me that I could hardly bear it.  That's been about a decade ago, and I still remember it with a grimace.

The same kind of thing happened to me again a few nights ago, only this time I wasn't vacuuming but was instead in the top of a bunk bed, changing Moriah's sheets.  At all times, changing the sheets of a bunk bed is WAY down on my list of Fun Activities to Do; but I've never had such a painful time of it before!  But for whatever reason, the position I was in led my knee to clench up and then "tear," shooting daggers all through me.  It was miserable.

The thing that makes me laugh about it now was that I was really in an absurd position.  Stuck on my hands and knees on the top of the bed, I was afraid to move for fear of that terrible pain shooting through me again; and so I stayed there a while, trying desperately to figure out whether I should shift my weight to the right or the left so I could roll over (neither option seemed likely to give me much relief, so it was the lesser of two evils), and then trying to decide the best plan for getting down from the bunk bed.  Tobin, Shav, and Moriah were my audience; and as they watched, Tobin asked, "Is there anything I can do for you, Mom?", and Shav wondered, "Are you crying from pain or from laughter?" (it was both--although my kids are well accustomed to seeing me cry from emotion, whether happy or sad, they have not often seen me cry from physical pain, so it caught them off guard), and Moriah declared, "I'm going to pray for you!" which she did immediately, out loud.

Meanwhile, I still remained on the top bunk, feeling completely stuck and absolutely ridiculous.  When I muttered something about the stupid situation I was in, Shav was quick to remind me that we shouldn't say "stupid."  I'm so glad I have children to remind me of lofty moral principles when I'm suffering!!  ;-)

Eventually, I was able to change my position and inch my way to the ladder, then oh-so-carefully lower myself to the ground where I could give goodnight hugs and then hobble to the couch after putting on a knee brace left over from my high school days when I played basketball!  I didn't get anything else on my to-do list done that night, that's for sure!

Thankfully, except for a little residual pain the next day which reminded me to be cautious with that knee, I haven't had any lingering effects.

I'm not eager to crawl up on that bunk bed again though!  ;-)

~ 7 ~

One of our local colleges, Bridgewater College (my parents' alma mater), had the privilege of hosting Mark Kelly who gave a talk that was open to the public a few nights ago.  Jeff took Josiah, Tobin, and Shav to it, while I took David to his gymnastics class (and Moriah and Benjamin tagged along with me).  I was pretty much in awe of the fact that we had such a famous person appearing in our town, and I was completely thrilled for Shav who had been inspired by something we had done recently in our homeschool and had watched quite a few YouTube videos about astronauts and the International Space Station, etc., before declaring that he, too, wants to be an astronaut when he grows up.  And then, just a few nights later, he got to hear Mark Kelly speak.  Perfect timing!

At the end of Kelly's speech, there was an open mic time for questions from the audience; and Shav boldly got up in front of all those people to ask him a question!  Shav's query: "Was the International Space Station fun?"  And Mark Kelly responded that it was indeed fun to be at the ISS, then went on to tell a story about some of the fun things they had done there.

I know Jeff, Josiah, and Tobin all enjoyed the evening very much; but I'm especially happy for Shav that he got to hear a real live hero speak...and then direct a question to him personally!  :)

~ 8 ~

One of our local treasures is a discount grocery store called Sharp Shopper; and last Friday, when I had a few minutes free before picking up Josiah and David from their Spanish class, I slipped in to see what kind of bargains I could find.  Here's what I discovered...  :)

 I was excited to find the coffee yogurt (my absolute favorite) because the store where I normally get it has not been carrying it recently, so when I saw it--and then noticed that it was 4 for $1--I quickly decided to stock up.  But then, I noticed that there were other kids of yogurt that were also 4 for $1, so I got the fruit kinds that are on the right in the picture.  But then!

The yogurt in the center of the picture comes in a 4-pack, and the original price of those 4-packs was 6 for $1.  That is, 24 yogurt cups for one dollar.  But then!!  The price was reduced, and it was now 10 of the 4-packs for $1.  Yes, 40 yogurt cups for 100 pennies.  Fantastic!!

All my kids love yogurt, and it's so convenient to have some on hand for snacks and quick meals.  My only problem was fitting them all in the refrigerator when I got home!  :)

~ 9 ~

Music is a huge part of my life, and on a normal day at home, not too much time goes by without me turning on one of my Pandora channels or one of my YouTube playlists--although these days, when I do that, it's not uncommon for one of my kids to pipe up and ask if we can listen to his or her playlist instead!  ;-)

As I listen to Pandora, a lot of the songs that come on are familiar to me; but sometimes (and fairly often recently), new ones pop up.  In that way, I've discovered some new favorites in the past week or so; and quite a few of them, I've realized, have come from the groups Rend Collective and I Am They.

Here's a sample from I Am They...



...and one from Rend Collective.


I love how music acts as a powerful weapon in the spiritual battles of daily life!

~ 10 ~

Something historic happened this week: Josiah, who had long delayed getting a Facebook account FINALLY decided to get one.  Even his grandpa got one before he did!!  ;-) 

I think Josiah has really enjoyed having this avenue for connecting with friends, old and new.  David has already announced that the day he turns 13, he's going to get Facebook!  :)

~ 11 ~

And speaking of Facebook, here is a snippet that I posted there earlier today but want to include here, for memory's sake.  :)

Real-life conversation in my kitchen this morning...

Tobin, age 9: "Why do you guys like to stay in your pajamas, like, half the day?"

David, age 12: "Hypocrite."
and Me, age 41, simultaneously: "You're in your pajamas!"

Tobin, looking down at his legs and seeing them covered in pajamas pants, then beginning to grin sheepishly: "Oh."

* laughter erupting from all of us *

It was 11:07 a.m.  Does that count as "half the day"?  :)

I will add that, of all the people in the kitchen at that moment, I was the only one who wasn't wearing pajamas.  ;-)

Project of the Day: The Garage

Maybe it's because of the springtime.

Maybe it's because the hectic pace we've been running at as a family has slowed considerably, leaving me actual "free time," including entire days in which I don't have to leave my house.

Maybe it's because I've been reading a fantastic book, The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want under Everything You Own by Joshua Becker--arguably the single best book on home organization/decluttering/minimalism I've ever read.

Maybe it's because, whether pregnant or not (I'm not), the nesting bug hits me every so often, and I must do something to satisfy it.

Whatever the reason, I spent time this past week doing significant cleaning and organization in three rooms of my house: Benjamin's, mine, and the garage.  I didn't take pictures of the first two rooms (but I will say that I am loving the fact that my room is so neat and peaceful these days!) :), but yesterday, as I attacked the horrendous mess in the garage, I did pull out the camera to document the transformation.

Here it was at the beginning of the day.

That pile of stuff on the floor included snow shovels, sleds, pool noodles, a car mat, bikes and helmets, lids for storage boxes, trash, a stroller I haven't used for Benjamin in a long time, and assorted other items.

What a mess!

It wasn't as if the whole garage floor was covered with it.

No, we've been able to keep one side clear so we could park one of our vehicles inside.  But when it was in the garage, there wasn't much room for walking around on either side of it!

I didn't have anything else pressing I needed to do yesterday, and I was very inspired to tackle this project and see how far I could get with it.  I had brought up this Jeep walker from my dad's basement, stuck Benjamin in it for the first time so he would be happy and safe (and truth be told, out of the way, because having a baby scoot through the mess on the garage floor wouldn't help one bit).  :)

And then I got to work.  Rather, we did.  The four middle kids (Josiah was away at the barbershop, helping Jeff) were good helpers, pitching in to do what they could and, when they weren't needed, having fun playing outside on a beautiful warm day.  It was a great arrangement for all of us.

When the task seemed overwhelming, I reminded myself that all I had to do was pick up one thing at a time--just one thing--then make a decision about what to do with it before going on to the next thing.  One item at a time, the mountain of junk started to shrink.

It was during this time that the neighbor boy, Jason, came over to play: and I had to laugh when he remarked innocently about how LONG it had been since we had cleaned out our garage--"it's been YEARS!"  :)

A break to fix a quick lunch for the kids to eat outside and to put Benjamin in bed for his nap, and then the work continued, and amazingly, we reached bare floor!  :)

David has a lot of experience sweeping since he does that job weekly at the barbershop, so he grabbed a broom and started working.  He did remark that it felt odd to sweep without wearing rollerblades!  (He always wears them at the barbershop.)  :)

What a pleasing sight to my eyes!  Open space where a big mess had been a few hours earlier!

I had told my kids this was Phase One of the garage project; as thrilled as I was with all we accomplished, there is still a whole lot of junk in the garage that needs to be sorted and gotten rid of!

But for the moment, it was rewarding to savor the progress we had made.  All that room!

Some of that open space disappeared when we had to put the bicycles and various other vehicles back in the garage.

I guess I'm the only one of the family that doesn't have a bike or trike or other means of transportation in this group, so that adds up to a lot of wheels.  :)

And even though those vehicles take up some of that valuable open space, it's definitely worth it to see the smiles on my kids' faces when they get to ride their bikes, like Moriah was doing on Shav's old bike with training wheels (and, although I didn't get a picture, Shav was doing on a bike without training wheels, since he is fully capable of that this spring).  :)

That grin more than makes up for the labor that went into this project!  :)

2016: The Review

At last!  We come to the last night of the year, the last blog post of 2016.  It has been a good, good year; and I am filled to overflowing with gratitude!

As always, I like to look back on the blog designs that I've used.  You may notice that there are only 11, instead of the customary 12.  ;-)  As it turns out, I never did get around to switching my May look to a different one for June; but that's OK: I sure did like that May header photo with all my most precious relationships in it and didn't mind looking at it twice as long as normal.  

Another tradition of mine is to keep track of the books I read, so here is my list for 2016.

January
1. Behind Nazi Lines: My Father's Heroic Quest to Save 149 World War II POWs - Andrew Gerow HOdges Jr. and Denise George - A man at our church referred to this book during a lesson before communion, and it interested Josiah so much that he borrowed the book...and then I read it.  :)  It's a wonderful example of the difference that ONE person can make, if he or she is willing to take a risk and stand for what is right.  There are two specific instances in which the main character offers to substitute himself to save the life of another--the first was for an English officer, and the second was for a German officer (the enemy!).  It's easy to see how this can tie into communion, as we think about the substitution that Jesus did for us.
2. The Legend of Sheba: Rise of a Queen - Tosca Lee - I saw an online recommendation for Lee's book Havah and wondered if my local library had it...they did not, but they did have this one...I enjoyed it, although you can guess that with the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon being two of the main characters, it (although not graphic) didn't exactly hold up a high standard of purity!...so little is written about the Queen of Sheba that the author had to do a lot of stretching to fill in the blanks, but overall a fun read
3. Savage Will: The Daring Escape of Americans Trapped Behind Nazi Lines - Timothy M. Gay - My love for non-fiction continues; real life events are fascinating!  The episode described in this book was completely unknown to me before I began to read, and I enjoyed it very much.  I will admit that there were two things about the book that made it a little difficult: one is the sheer complexity of the political situation in Albania and the unfamiliarity of most Americans (certainly myself included!) with the names and groups mentioned in the book.  And secondly, I'm not sure if the author is trying to be highly original in his choice of words or if it just happens to be the way he naturally writes, but there were quite a few times when I sort of shook my head as I thought, "Why did he choose that unfamiliar, or unnecessarily obtuse, word?"  Besides those things, the book was captivating!
4. I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan - Nancy Reagan - I hadn't yet started kindergarten when Ronald Reagan became president, so I knew nothing about him besides his role as president.  This tender book showed a much different side of him, and I liked it very much.  I expected it to be basically just his letters, but Nancy included many remembrances that brought meaning to the creative and incredibly loving things that he wrote.  Very enjoyable!  This quote from one of his letters stood out to me the most: "But what is really important is that having fulfilled our responsibilities to our offspring we haven't been careless with the treasure that is ours--namely what we are to each other."
5. Keep Moving and Other Tips and Truths about Aging - Dick Van Dyke - This book is as fun and light-hearted as Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins!  :)  The serious thing that I most want to remember is this question that he recommends asking oneself: "What do I need to do next so that I don't worry about not having done it?"

February
6. The Contender - Robert Lipsyte - Josiah read this and then told me I should read it, too, so I did.  :)  I always enjoy the camaraderie that comes from having read the same books as my children have.
7. The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels - Ree Drummond - I should begin by saying that I, unlike many of my fellow bloggers, am not a reader of The Pioneer Woman blog.  (I'm not much of a bandwagon person, so reading a blog that popular doesn't appeal much to me.  Not that there's anything wrong with Ree's blog, but I'd rather read the blog of someone I have some kind of relationship with, not just a famous, talented somebody who will never even know I exist.)  But not being a reader of her blog didn't hinder my understanding or enjoyment of her book.  It was entertaining, but I did get tired of her descriptions of how physically attracted she was to her future (at the time) husband.  OK, we know he had strong arms; stop talking about them!!  But her self-deprecating humor is effective, and her descriptions of aspects of ranching life were interesting to read.
8. The Great and Terrible Quest - Margaret Lovett - Josiah read this as part of his study of world history, then suggested that I read it, too.  I enjoyed it!

March and April
~ Apparently, I didn't finish reading any books during these two months--not my normal pattern, that's for sure!  March was such an incredibly busy month (because of the puppies and a number of visitors we had here in our home), that I'm not surprised I didn't finish any then; but I'm not sure what happened to April!  I was doing some reading--parts of longer books, as well as reading some books to the kids for school (which I never count in this record)--but somehow I didn't finish any books in my personal reading.

May
9. Master Cornhill - Eloise Jarvis McGraw - Another book recommended by Josiah after he read it for school.  I thought the author did a fantastic job of including TONS of accurate historical details which made it fascinating to read.  The Great Plague and the Great Fire of London are vividly etched in my mind now because of this book.

June
10. Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom - This book was on the shelf in the guesthouse where we stayed during a homeschool convention, and I read it in two evenings after the kids had gone to bed.  Thought-provoking and sweet.

July
11. Dirt: The Quirks, Habits, and Passions of Keeping House - edited by Mindy Lewis - I read this on a whim, but ended up liking it much more than I imagined I would.  I did have to laugh a little at all these essays about, in essence, our relationship with dirt; who knew housekeeping was such a deep topic?  :)  Here are some parts I especially liked...  "Our housekeeping styles express who we are on the most intimate psychological level.  In cleaning (much as in writing) we make sense of our lives, sort our messes, restore order to our psyches, work out our anger and frustration, rediscover the beauty in our lives, and express our love for (and resentment toward) others.  Housecleaning is the daily/weekly/monthly--or in some cases, quarterly, semiannual, or way-long-overdue--necessary ritual of restoration.  For many, it's an ongoing, constant occupation; for others, an easily overlooked distraction."  Oooo, I like that phrase: "necessary ritual of restoration"!  Another place...  "...making a home wasn't just a menial chore, it was an honorable vocation.  It was more than keeping things clean.  It was the creation of 'yourness.' A space that was special and yours, where you could find your things...  It's what allowed you to own the space around you.  There's something to be said for the ability to make order out of chaos.  It is, after all, how we survive in the world.  It's what writers do with ideas--make orderly arguments out of fragmentary thoughts; it's what scientists do with nature--find general principles to make sense of the world."  And another spot...  "Lately, though, I enjoy cleaning up, because the kitchen is a finite area responsive to concentrated work...Order pleases me enormously, but it is a pleasure I do not wish to work to create, nor does any one else in my household.  As a result, home is chaotic...I never understood that a neat and clean home requires constant, daily work.  I passively wait for the miracle of neatness to occur, and it does not.  I resent that after cleaning and polishing my kitchen, the same thing has to be repeated the very next time a meal is cooked."
12. I Kissed Dating Goodbye - Joshua Harris - I read this to get some ideas for how to help my children (particularly Josiah at this stage, but the others will be ready for this before long!) navigate guy/girl relationships  :)
13. One Second After - William Forstchen - Josiah read this and urged me to read it.  I could see how it had absolutely gripped him while he was reading it, and I felt that same intense emotion as I read it.  It prompted me to, for the first time ever, consider asking Jeff to buy more bullets because maybe we don't have enough ammunition!  :)  He reassured me that we have plenty and we really don't need to buy any more right now.  :)
14. One Year After - William Forstchen - It took me a little longer to be as enthralled with this one as with the first, but then it caught me and I was hooked.  I look forward to reading the third one when it comes out!

August
15. I Am David - Anne Holm - OUTSTANDING book! We got this from the library for Josiah to read as part of his history curriculum through Sonlight (an aside: we have found SO MANY great books through Sonlight!), but I actually picked it up first and was immediately captured by it (as was Josiah when it was his turn to read it).  It's a simple read, but extremely profound and moving.  I highly recommend this.
16. Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal - Joel Salatin
17. Two Kisses for Maddy - Matthew Logelin - I was walking down an aisle in the dollar store, of all places, when I saw this book for sale and decided on impulse to buy it.  I had a vague recollection of hearing the gist of the story some time ago but was interested in reading more.  The beauty of the love expressed in the book and the sorrow of the tragedy were heart-moving, but there was so much profanity in it (the author is blatantly unapologetic about that) that I found it hard to truly appreciate it like I would have otherwise.

At this point, I completely lost track of when I read the following books.  I ended up piling them up on a bookshelf in my kitchen and not taking the time to write them down when I finished them.  But at some point during the second half of this year, I read...
18. Jake's Tower - Elizabeth Laird - suggested by Josiah - deals with some tough realities, but handles it well
19. The Puppy Diaries: Raising a Dog Named Scout - Jill Abramson - just for fun, because I love golden retrievers  :)
20. Rain Reign - Ann Martin - another one suggested by Josiah - EXCELLENT book - I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to see the world through the eyes of someone with autism
21. My Heart Lies South - Elizabeth Borton de Trevino - fun read
22. The Thread that Runs So True - Jesse Stuart - I really, really enjoyed this - made me realize again how much the world of education has changed during the past century - if I were a teacher, I would read this book regularly for inspiration!
23. Joyous Peggy - Lillian Grace Copp
24. The Waiting - Cathy LaGrow with Cindy Coloma - true story - absolutely gripping - I highly recommend - this book isn't preachy at all, but almost without even trying, it sure makes a strong case against abortion in cases of rape
25. Keeping Score - Linda Sue Park - Josiah read this and was impressed, especially because of the way it explained the Korean War to him better than he had ever heard it before! so I read it, too  :) ...it also helped me to understand the passion that some people (but not me) have for professional sports
26. Bonanza Girl - Patricia Beatty - another one that Josiah read first
27. To Have and to Hold - Mary Johnston - really enjoyable, not just because of the entertaining story and the glimpse into life in Virginia when the colony was in its infancy, but also because of the brilliant word choices - the plot was a little far-fetched at times, but the language was a delight to read - it made me want to read it again, just to revel in the combination of words this author masterfully used!

I already have a couple of good books started for 2017, so it won't be long until I start jotting things down on my new list.  I wonder what my list will look like by December 31, 2017.  :)

As curious as I am about what the next 365 days will hold, I really don't want to know what's coming around the bend.  I've learned, as I've gotten older, that foreknowledge is a dangerous thing; and I'd rather take each day as it comes, without carrying the burden of knowing what is ahead.  Rather than knowing what this new year holds, I'm much more interested in knowing Who holds this new year!  :)

Welcome, 2017!!

The Finest Age

When he was only nine months old,
  And plump and round and pink of cheek,
A joy to tickle and to hold,
  Before he'd even learned to speak,
His gentle mother used to say:
  "It is too bad that he must grow.
If I could only have my way
  His baby ways we'd always know."

And then the year was turned, and he
  Began to toddle round the floor
And name the things that he could see
  And soil the dresses that he wore.
Then many a night she whispered low:
  "Our baby now is such a joy
I hate to think that he must grow
  To be a wild and heedless boy."

But on he went and sweeter grew,
  And then his mother, I recall,
Wished she could keep him always two,
  For that's the finest age of all.
She thought the selfsame thing at three,
  And now that he is four, she sighs
To think he cannot always be
  The youngster with the laughing eyes.

Oh, little boy, my wish is not
  Always to keep you four years old.
Each night I stand beside your cot
  And think of what the years may hold;
And looking down on you I pray
  That when we've lost our baby small,
The mother of our man will say
  "This is the finest age of all."

~ a poem by Edgar Guest, from a book published 100 years ago ~

I Shall Be Random, Vol. 12

 ~ 1 ~

This past summer, Josiah developed a new love: composing music.  He spent HOURS arranging pieces and writing new ones, and he especially enjoyed using Noteflight because he could compose for a wide variety of instruments and then listen to how it would sound.  

When I was in college, I did a little composing; I think all of us music majors had to try our hand at it.  I did fine with it, but never came close to approaching Josiah's aptitude and love for music composition.  He amazes me for a few reasons...

First, he's significantly younger than I was when I composed.  Second, he doesn't know music theory NEARLY as well as I did, and yet he's able to compose music that sounds really, really beautiful, even without the theoretical knowledge behind it.  Third, I limited my music composition/arranging to instruments that I knew well: piano, voice, violin, guitar, a little flute.  That's about it.  Josiah composes for all kinds of different instruments: woodwinds, brass, string, percussion, etc.  His lack of knowledge about the instruments doesn't make him shy away from any of them. Fourth, he composes so quickly!  He can sit down at the computer, start writing, and within a few hours have a pretty decent piece.  Sometimes he makes revisions the next day, and sometimes he even goes back some days or weeks down the road and changes a few things in his pieces; but usually, the process doesn't take him long at all.

It is fascinating to me to watch this gift of Josiah's emerge!

~ 2 ~

We are all big fans of Josiah's music and are very used to hearing it blare forth from the computer speakers.  But last Wednesday, a new piece that Josiah was composing brought forth an unusual reaction from Benjamin.

Josiah was at the computer in the living room, working on his piece; and Benjamin was in the high chair in the kitchen.  The piece, called "Windscape," began with some basic percussion, but then the flute comes in with a mournful tune; and it actually uses a kind of electronic bend that wouldn't be entirely possible in real life.  ;-)  I happened to glance over at Benjamin and saw his dear little face wrinkle up as he began to cry.  I was getting ready to get him out of the high chair anyway, so I didn't think too much of it--maybe he was just tired of being confined and so he fussed because of that.  But I wondered...

And then Josiah started playing "Windscape" again, and the exact thing happened.  The percussion section didn't elicit a reaction; but as soon as the flute part began, Benjamin jerked his head around, his face wrinkled up, he leaned closer to me to bury his head in my shoulder, and he wailed.

"That CAN'T be just a coincidence," I thought.  "I've heard of babies who have a strong emotional response to a certain song or certain types of music, but I haven't seen anything quite like that in my own babies."

We waited a little, then repeated the experiment; and sure enough, as soon as the scooping flute came in, Benjamin's reaction was the same, and he ended in tears.

This was curious enough to me that I wanted to capture it on video, so I asked David to try to record Benjamin's reaction while being inconspicuous.  We all tried to act normal while Josiah played his song yet again; this was the fourth time.  Benjamin's reaction is recorded below.

Part of me felt sorry for my dear little boy who was so moved by Josiah's song, but the other part of me was so thoroughly amused that I could barely keep from laughing.  Most of all, I was so intrigued by Benjamin's reaction.  For four times, when he heard measure 9 in "Windscapes," his facial expression and body language repeated, ending in a cry.

After David took the video, he held it up to me so I could see it; and as Benjamin heard the music on the video, he repeated the reaction again!  Clearly, something in it really bothered him.

It must have been a day or two later.  Jeff and I were upstairs in our room with Benjamin on the bed between us while Josiah was in the living room at the computer, working on this piece.  As soon as it began to play, Benjamin's ears perked up, so to speak, and he was alert and tuned in to it.  But that time he didn't cry.  Maybe he had gotten used to it, or maybe he wasn't troubled by it because he was further away from it and it wasn't so loud, or maybe he felt secure because he was close to his daddy and was looking right at Jeff.  Who knows?  In any case, it sure was interesting to see how moved he had been by that song!

~ 3 ~

They say misfortunes come in threes, and I'm inclined to believe them.  You see, earlier this week, our toilet malfunctioned, and the water wouldn't automatically fill into the tank to allow another flush.  Jeff said he could fix it and would pick up the parts on Wednesday, which happened to be the day we realized that our washing machine was toast.  It would fill with water and drain, but wouldn't spin or agitate.  Jeff looked around online but couldn't find anything for less than $400, so he went to the appliance and building supply part of Mercy House thrift store and found a used one for $125.  When he got home with that, I reluctantly said, "I really hate to tell you this, but I can't get the vacuum to work."  I had used it that very morning, and it did fine; but the next time I plugged it in, it wouldn't turn on at all.  Jeff took it apart and looked at it until he discovered the problem--some carbon piece that does something or other in the motor or some such thing--then, for a temporary solution, used a small carbon piece that came from an old set of barber clippers, and then the vacuum turned on.  

In one day, Jeff was a plumber, an electrician, and an appliance repair person.

The next day, I think he was happy to go be a barber again.  ;-)

I know I was happy to have a functioning vacuum, washing machine, and toilet again!!!  I'm so glad I married him!  :)

~ 4 ~

Tobin reached a huge milestone yesterday, and I would be remiss if I didn't make mention of it here.

Do you remember when I, more than three years ago, wrote about the difficulties he was having in learning to read?  And do you remember when, a year and a half ago, he achieved the feat of officially reading his first book?  Well, since that time, he has improved greatly; but it's been a long, slow journey.  As a matter of fact, it wasn't until he turned eight--this incident literally happened either on his birthday or right around it--that, for the first time, instead of saying, "I can't read," which was his normal response when the subject came up, or "I can read a little," which was the response I had been teaching him to use, he said, "I can read--A LOT!"  

But one thing he hadn't done--because I hadn't required it or even really suggested it--was finishing the reading book we had used for Josiah's reading lessons and David's reading lessons and, yes, Tobin's reading lessons.  We had gotten to something like Lesson 89, but had set it aside and Tobin ended up reading from other books.  Nothing wrong with that, but it just felt a little...well...unfinished.  

His reading ability was such that he could have finished the reading book well before now; but as it turned out, yesterday was the day that he officially read it all the way to the end.  Lesson 100, completed!

It felt good to bring that part of his reading journey to a definite conclusion.  It wasn't always a smooth path, but there's joy and satisfaction in sticking with something and seeing it through to the end.  I'm proud of him.  

AND I'm excited to watch as he advances further and further in his reading!  :)

~ 5 ~

For some reason, the leaves on our trees and many of the trees around here are just not as brilliant this year as they are sometimes.  They're turning colors, but certainly not as splendidly as I've seen them other years.  I'm sure there are some very specific reasons for that, but I don't know them!  Maybe one of my scientist friends will enlighten me.  :)

The lack of gorgeous colors doesn't mean they're not fun to jump in though.  :)  I was watching from an upstairs window and captured this through the screen; that's the reason for the funny lines in it.

~ 6 ~

Last night, when our friends Ryan and Sarah were here, Moriah was SO excited about playing Spot It (I believe it was a first for her to be able to play it on her own); and she cracked us all up with how she played it.  She would, like you're supposed to, find an item on her card that matched the card on the pile in the middle; but the game moves so fast that by the time she did, three or four other cards would have been laid, thereby changing the top card and negating her match.  But she didn't understand that and would happily shout out "MOON!" or "HEART!" or whatever item she had found that had matched (three or four cards ago) and would place her card on the pile.  We were all getting such a kick out of her joy and enthusiasm that we let her mistakes slide and allowed her to keep playing her version; she even "won" a time or two.  :)  Soon enough, she'll learn to play it correctly; but she might never get quite as much pleasure from it as she did last night when she was so happy I thought she might burst.  :)

After that, we watched the movie Up together...and Ryan and Sarah got a taste of what a family with six kids does for fun.  They were good sports about it.  ;-)

~ 7 ~

There are certain passages of the Bible that nearly always make me cry when I read them, but Isaiah 6 is not one of them.  It IS, however, my first favorite section of the Bible; from a very early age, the description of the glory of the Lord and Isaiah's willingness to respond to God's call moved me deeply, but I didn't CRY about it.

Until a few days ago when I was reading it aloud to the kids from The Children's Bible as we began our homeschool day together.

All of a sudden, my throat got all choked up, and I blinked furiously to try to hold back the tears, and I tried to act like everything was normal...but couldn't.  David reached for the Bible and read it aloud while I sat there and tried not to bawl.  My goodness!

I'm not sure what affected my emotions so much this time.  My kids aren't either!  They're often puzzled by my teary eyes, but it's not really something I can explain.  If my sons happen to marry women who are quick to cry, maybe they'll have an extra measure of compassion and grace for them because they've seen their mother's eyes begin to water suspiciously so many times!  :)

~ 8 ~

One account in the Bible that does bring the tears almost every time I read it is the story of Joseph, but I don't want to talk about the tears part right now.  Instead, here are a few other things that stand out to me.

In Genesis 47:2, when Joseph chooses five of his brothers and presents them to Pharaoh, I always wonder, "Which ones?"  :)

Later in that chapter, Joseph presents his father Jacob to Pharaoh; and here is this mighty king of the powerful nation of Egypt and this old, weather-beaten, wandering shepherd.  Then Jacob blesses Pharaoh, and it seems to me that in the spiritual sense, all the power in the room shifts to Jacob at that point.

A couple chapters earlier, in Genesis 45:24, Joseph has revealed his identity to his brothers and is sending them back to get their father and wives and children and hurry back to Egypt.  Joseph, knowing well his brothers' natures, warns them as they go, "Don't quarrel on the way!"  And it always makes me chuckle.  :)

One other tidbit from this section of scripture...  Several weeks ago, I was away from Benjamin for the evening; and I really missed him.  I missed all my other family members that I wasn't with, too; but there was a heightened yearning for Benjamin as I drove home, eager to reunite with him.  On the way, I thought, "Isn't there a verse in the Bible somewhere that talks about someone whose life was bound up with their son's life?  I should look that up when I get home and discover who it's talking about."

And then out of the blue, it came to me; and I realized with a start that the person in the Bible who is described in such a beloved way is...Benjamin.

In Genesis 44:30, Judah is pleading with Joseph (whom he does not yet realize is Joseph but instead perceives to be this high-ranking official in Egypt) to let Benjamin return to Canaan and let Judah remain in Egypt as Joseph's slave, to atone for Benjamin's "wrong-doing" (which was, of course, fabricated to test the loyalty of the 10 older brothers).  Judah says, "So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy's life, sees that the boy isn't there, he will die."

I don't want to hold too tightly to my Benjamin's life.  I want to walk in trust that God loves him even more than I do and already has a great plan for his life.  And I don't want to imply that I don't have such attachment to my other kids because oh my word, do I ever!

But I'll just say this: in this aspect, I sure can identify with Jacob!!