October 1, 2010 10:30 p.m.

First of all, I have to say Happy October!  "October First" has a beautiful ring to it, don't you think?  Introducing my favorite time of the year, when every week will probably get better than the last.

But what I meant to talk about is choices.  With my limited spare time at home, I like to do the following things:

Blog

Read

Practice the piano

But I find that if I do one of them, that means the other two are simply not going to happen at all that day.   To make it more complicated, I have gotten active again on Facebook, mainly because a homeschool group I joined uses it as one of its methods of communicating, and I don't want to miss anything.  So that, and posting about our trip, has kind of -- drawn me --- back -- to Facebook activity.  Well, Facebook limits everything, so that means even less likelihood of blogging, reading, and practicing the piano.

So, once again I recognize, immediately, the need to tone down the Facebook involvement by about 97%, or virtually none.  Which I will do when I have finished uploading photos in a few days.

Unfortunately my blogging, too, comes at great cost.  Darn.  Maybe it will be better on the weekend.  I haven't read (except the Bible), or touched the piano, since we returned home.  It's a reality of life.  Just a season, you know.  I am not complaining, just noting the reality of too few hours in a day.  That's all.

 Friday, September 3, 2010 8:05 a.m.

What do you do to fill the time in the van when driving 6000 miles with children?

Here is our arsenal of activities:

1. String Games

2. Yahtzee

3. Dutch Blitz, UNO and Mille Bornes (for the campsite).

4. Magnetic games and a checker set.

5. Kids' books: Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, for sure.  Family Fun's Games on the Go. Mad Libs.

6. A separate journal binder for each child to record what happened each day.  Complete with a pouch with colored pencils, pens, markers, pencil sharpener.

7. Mommy will keep up her read alouds.  I am finishing up The Witch's Brat by Rosemary Sutcliff (this book was a kind gift from Linda, my bloggy friend in Scotland.  You can check out her beautiful blog, Occasional Scotland,  here).

8. Other books we hope to read are: The Master Puppeteer by Katherine Paterson;  The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford; How God Sent a Dog to Save a Family by Joel Beeke.

9. We will continue our learning of the Westminster Catechism while riding in the van, using Training Hearts, Teaching Minds, by Starr Meade.  And of course, the Bible.

10.  There will be books for me to read silently to myself.  They are The Red Tent by Anita Diamant; Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges; and Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns: How Pop Culture Rewrote the Hymnal, by T. David Gordon.

11. And then, of course, there is the Sirius Radio receiver full of commercial-free music.  I guess I'm cheating - that's electronic!

You know, I just feel that much more secure when we have plenty of good books to read, you know what I mean?

It's been sitting on my bookshelf for some 23 years. I have packed it and unpacked it and packed it again as I moved from state to state, home to home. But I never read it. In fact, I tried to get into it a few times, and never got anywhere. I'm not sure why. But then I read an article recently by someone who rediscovered the book in her own life, and I thought - gee, I have that book! I think I'll get it down and read it. The name of the book is The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life and it was written in 1875, and revised in 1888 by Hannah Whitall Smith. I think there was a reason that I haven't read this book until now. At my age, after being a believer for over 24 years, perhaps it is just now that I can bring enough of my own life's perspective to bear on the contents of this book.

So now, I am reading it, slowly, and rereading many of the sentences over and over again as I go... partly to relish its contents, partly to let the message sink into my brain and heart, and mostly because my ability to concentrate in my reading has been at a low ebb these days (more on that in some other post..)

Ms. Smith had the ability to break spiritual concepts down in concrete terms, and this my concrete engineer brain really needs, always has. She wrote, initially, about how Jesus not only frees us from the guilt and penalty of sin in the future, but also from its power in the present moment. How too many Christians are not living the life of being delivered from the power of sin. She indicated how we must abandon ourselves fully into our Father's hands, as the clay to the divine Potter. We must lie passive in His hands, in total trust, and allow Him to work in us to make us a vessel pleasing to Him, and suitable for his purposes.

She used excellent word-pictures. I like the picture of us as children in the Father's house, running free and light-hearted with the happy carelessness of childhood. And how God's heart is grieved when his beloved children take such anxious care and thought about their lives, instead of resting in His care.

But most meaningful to me so far was the prayer of abandonment and trust by which the Christian can enter (or re-enter) into this life. I will paraphrase it here:

Lord Jesus, I believe that you are able and willing to deliver me from all the care and unrest and bondage of my Christian life. I believe you did die to set me free, not only in the future, but now and here. I believe you are stronger than sin, and that you can keep me, even me, in my extreme of weakness, from falling into its snares or yielding obedience to its commands. And Lord, I am going to trust you to keep me. I have tried keeping myself, and have failed, and failed most grievously. I am absolutely helpless. So now I will trust you. I give myself to you. I keep back no reserves. Body, soul, and spirit, I present myself to you, as a piece of clay, to be fashioned into anything your love and your wisdom shall choose. And now I am yours. I believe you accept that which I present to you. I believe that this poor, weak, foolish heart has been taken possession of by you, and that you have even at this very moment begun to work in me to will and to do of your good pleasure. I trust you utterly, and I trust you now.

What a refreshing and renewing prayer to pray at this point in my Christian life. I picture myself as that child running gleefully through the rooms of my Father's mansion. Knowing that all is well as long as he is keeping my life. He loves me, and he is my Father. He knows more than anyone what's best for me, and would never withhold His best from me. He knows what's best. He knows what's best. If we Christians can really grab hold of this meaning, then we should know true peace and joy in the here and now.

We interrupt this Wordless Wednesday to announce that ..... our daughter is reading!! She walked up to me this morning with Green Eggs and Ham in her hand, and told me she was going to read it to me. So up she went on my lap, and she began with "I Am Sam...", then "Sam I Am". Okay, so I figure she might have memorized that part, but she just kept on going, slowly and methodically reading the sight words I had already taught her, and sounding out the words that were new to her. She wasn't sure about a couple of words and asked me about them, but she kept right on, reading through to the very last page!!! There was much jubilation at that moment, and we proudly announced the news to Daddy when he got home. I knew she could handle the early Bob Books, and several of the very brief Calvert Kindergarten early phonics readers ("Cat Sat on a Mat" kind of stuff) but today she decided that she could just dig in and take on this entire book by herself, and she did!!!

Congratulations little girl!!! We are so proud of you, unlocking the door to reading by yourself!

Here is a photo of her reading a Calvert phonics reader to her brother a few weeks ago..