Friday's Fave Five, 6/5/26

Friday's Fave Five host blog, Susanne's Space, is linked here.

This week I am thankful for:

1. ...several times of eating out.  We had hoped to go somewhere this week, but the schedule rapidly filled up with other responsibilities and things to get done.  But we've eaten out several times to make up for it.  😀  Today we had lunch at a favorite place of ours, Sullivan's, and Wednesday we tried a new place to us where we will probably return.  I love to eat out!!

2. ...lots of work done on the attic.  Mike has everything down from our main attic.  We were going to do a yard sale but have about decided to just donate it all to the local thrift store that supports a Christian addiction ministry.  But there was a ton of stuff up there - things that have to be gone through and decided what to trash and what to save for the kids and what to go through myself.  I found three boxes of memorabilia that will keep me busy for awhile!  And my fine china, and a plastic bin with heirloom quilts, and lots of memories of our children.  Unfortunately, a lot of their old books, cassette tapes, and other things will just have to be trashed.  We waited a little too long to get it all out.  But at least we got a lot done this week.

3. ...blueberries!  We went to the farm and one bush was not only loaded with ripe berries, but they were huge and sweet!  I picked a gallon.  There will be many more in the weeks to come.                                                                                       4. ...our sweet afternoon at the farm on Tuesday.  I felt like my senses were overloaded.  Two bushes of the beautiful berries were unexpectedly ready to pick.  Mike bush hogged, and a Mississippi kite followed him for an hour, diving and swooping to catch grasshoppers and other bugs that were thrown up by the bush hog.  The lighting was perfect so that for the first time I could really see the beautiful pearl gray colors of the top of the Mississippi kite.  Lots of bird singing was all around me.  And to top it all off, the gardenia bushes were blooming and the fragrance was gorgeous.  

5. ...lots of study progress.  I teach the ladies next week at church on Wednesday night, and I feel the responsibility of being prepared for that.  And I've been overhauling several lessons for teaching at the rehab on Fridays.  I feel like both projects are getting somewhere.

Happy Friday!

Friday's Fave Five 5/22/26

 I haven't done this in forever.  It's time to produce a FFF at least from time to time.  Thank you for the opportunity!  Friday's Fave Five host blog

1. Little Miss had a birthday this week.  She is THREE and she proudly holds up three fingers (takes a few minutes to get them in position 😀 but she is successful).  She is doing very well.

2. Last night we went to the local Culver's with Little Miss and her family, and my mother, for a last celebration for her birthday.  And Little Mister, now eight months old, sat up proudly in a restaurant high chair for the first time!  He's waving and clapping, and is a happy boy.  We're so thankful for both of them.

3. I was very busy the first half of this week.  But Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are moving much more quietly.  I'm happy for a few very free days.

4. I am studying Lies Women Believe in order to be the substitute at our church's Wednesday evening ladies' Bible studies this summer.  I've taught the book for three years at a local women's addiction program, but teaching to churched ladies means bringing out different concepts and presenting in a different way.  It's been a challenge and one I've enjoyed.  

5. I've got several new books to read. That's always fun.  I joined a book club at church and have enjoyed that very much also.

Happy Friday and God's blessings!

"School Days" by Maltbie D. Babcock

This simple little poem stood out to me greatly when I was teaching 8th grade English (it was included in their textbook).  The author, Maltbie D. Babcock, is also the author of the well-known hymn "This Is My Father's World."  The last stanza of this poem almost brings me to tears each time I read it - probably because of being a schoolteacher for so many years.

Lord, let me make this rule

To think of life as school.

And try my best to stand each test,

And do my work, and nothing shirk.

If weary with my book

I cast a wistful look

Where posies grow, Oh let me know

That flowers within are best to win.

These lessons Thou dost give

To teach me how to live.

To do, to bear, to get and share,

To work and play, and trust alway.

Some day the bell will sound,

Some day my heart will bound,

As with a shout, that school is out,

And lessons done,

I homeward run.

Striking Quotations from "Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart"

 Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart was recommended to me - I got it off of Hoopla.  It's deep but I've been getting much out of it.  This isn't a review but more a commentary on a couple of quotations.

Author Russ Ramsey writes one chapter on van Gogh, the famous artist who cut off his own ear in a moment of misery, and how a gift shop connected to a van Gogh exhibition carried a number of "kitschy" items about him.  One in particular was a thermal coffee mug with this attached note:  "When you pour in a hot beverage, Vincent's ear magically vanishes before your very eyes.  Easy van come - easy van Gogh."  Ramsey commented, "It broke my heart.  It still does."

And here are the quotations from Ramsey that caused me to think:  

"That gift shop grieved me in the same way as when I read in Scripture about Simon the leper, the woman caught in adultery, or the doubly vexed Zacchaeus, the diminutive tax collector - people identified by the worst things about them."

Next paragraph:  "What if what happened to Vincent's ear isn't really all that funny?  What happened there--undoubtedly one of the lowest points in an already tortured soul's life--helps us see not just his shame but also the hope that surrounds it.  It shows us that, in the end, we are not our worst moments or our biggest failures.  It teaches us the sacred work of stewarding another's pain.  And it bids us, 'Be gentle.  This is a hard world.'"

I've known people who are quick to point out the negative - sometimes failures that are decades old, in other people's lives.  I've been guilty of it myself.  This quotation puts that kind of comment into perfect perspective, and warns why we should not be that way, in a better way than I could ever have stated it.

Beautiful Piece of Writing

I am reading old YANKEE magazines and throwing them away as I go.  Most of them don't have much in them that I want to save, but a few do.  Edie Clark always writes an entertaining column, and I really liked this ending: 

YANKEE magazine, September 1993, “The Garden at Chesham Depot” by Edie Clark, p. 104

 (she is writing about canning tomatoes on a September day):

 

“The day passes this way, me the clerk, an assembly line of one, transferring tomatoes from bushel to pot to jar to the newspaper-covered kitchen table, where they cool.  One by one, they give that reassuring sound: familiar, comforting – a tongue-clucking tock! – that tells me, for sure, that the jar is sealed, that it is safe. Throughout the day, as I pass these jars to the table, they talk like this – tock! tock! – and then wind down, as I do.  After dark, the windows steamed solid, I climb the stairs and fall into bed, tired, happy – and downstairs, I hear one last distant tock! before falling asleep.”

And Now You Know Why I Never Made it as a Poet.

Written 1982.  Never titled.  :-)

You may be in pain,

But at least you're still sane,

And don't have migraine,

Or disease of the brain.

I'll bring you a cane

Or some aspirin, a grain,

Or a shot in your vein

So your hurting will wane.

If this is a drain,

And your nerves have a strain,

Remember Paul's refrain

That to die would be gain!

"The King"

 I found some old writings yesterday.  This is from March 1989 when my son was 4-5 months old.

THE KING

He is the king, and he knows it.  Why else would he have the audacity to lie awake in my arms at 6:30 in the morning, cooing, laughing, and making bubbling noises with his formula?  He probably even thought to himself, "Now I know that if I weren't around, my chief lady-in-waiting would never be awake this early, so I'll prove that I'm the one authority who can mover her out of bed."  And his gurgles and happy sounds are the proofs of his power.

He know that the right squeal or cry will bring one of his two principal subjects running to figure out his royal request.  And he knows that when we venture out into public, the general populace will press upon him, exclaiming his every virtue, while he sits in his privileged throne (stroller by definition) and decides which one of the masses will be the recipient of the royal smile he might choose to bestow.

Some days I think maybe I should set this self-appointed ruler straight.  I should tell him, "Look, sir, we got along fine before you came along, and life was a whole lot simpler then.  In fact, a year and a half ago you weren't even a gleam in our eyes, and the world ran just great without your royal presence!"  

But I never will.  One never makes such disrespectful remarks to a king.

Katherine Barnwell: How One Woman Revolutionized Missions, by Jordan Monson

I read this book last fall, posted it on my Goodreads, and really wanted to be able to give it a 5 (out of 5) rating. The subject matter alone could have been a 5, and the picture of the subject on the cover drew me in enough to buy this as a new book (a rare occurrence).  But I gave it a 3, for reasons given below.

Katharine (Katy) Barnwell was a fascinating woman and an immensely talented linguist. She instituted great reforms in Bible translation, and her creative, leadership-oriented mind opened up Bible translation to Christians around the globe. She is more than worthy of a biography. The places where the book simply focused on telling her life story made for good reading--her life did not need any embellishment.

However, the author could not resist, not just once but throughout the book, absolutely glorifying this woman. From all accounts she is a humble lady who resists the spotlight. Yet we were told multiple times that she accounts for far more salvations in the world than Billy Graham, that she is right up there with (and may be higher than) William Carey, that she is the greatest linguist ever. And on and on. Please, treat her like the talented woman that she is, and leave the platitudes and glory to the Lord for when we get to heaven.

Furthermore, the author made the book as much about himself as he did Dr. Barnwell. 

I recently read that Dr. Barnwell went to heaven in September of 2025.  I am glad to know about this gifted woman who transformed Bible translation, and for that reason enjoyed the book. I wish the rating could have been higher.

Two Babies - 2.3 Years Apart

They both have my heart!!!  

                                               

     

    

Reading Through the Bible in a Year

 On Christmas Eve, I finished a yearlong goal: to read the Bible through during the calendar year 2024.

This is the first time that I set that goal for awhile.  It is encouraged at our church, and it is a Bible-reading plan that can be helpful at times.  I found there to be both positives and negatives in the process.

Good reasons for reading through the Bible in a year:

--It is good to see the Bible as a unified book, one knit together by 40+ authors over several thousand years, all with the same message and all pointing to the Messiah.  This is the best reason for accomplishing this plan!

--Knowing that I had to get through a certain number of chapters each day, or I would get behind, was motivating to keep at the job day after day.  Reading through in a year is a good plan to keep a person on task, and in the Bible, without falling behind.

Possible drawbacks in this reading plan:

--As the year progressed, I found myself falling into a habit of my younger years - reading the passages for the day without getting as much out of it.  Knowing I had to get through Chapter 14, or whatever, sometimes caused me to read the words - while my mind wandered.  That was obviously not effective Bible reading.

--Also, having that daily goal sometimes caused my Bible reading to be just that - a daily goal.  I was not as motivated to think closely about each passage, or stop when something was speaking to my heart, but rather to get done.  I say that to my shame.

Other comments:

--I did not use a prescribed Bible reading plan.  I found a listing of the chapters of the Bible on the internet and printed it off.  It was very effective!  I did not attempt to go straight through but rather moved around through the Bible (reading Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel in a row was more than this reader could handle), sometimes reading Old Testament and sometimes New; sometimes reading in two books at a time and at the beginning of the year, reading in three or four.

--Sometimes I read in the ESV, sometimes in KJV.  Sometimes I listened using an online source read by Alexander Scourby.

--After checking off chapters that were read, I used yellow highlighter to indicate that the book was completed, and pink highlighter for entire sections.  The numbers at the end of each book were just the numbers of chapters in it, to make adding up how far I was a little easier.  Same for the numbers at the top.  1189 is the total number of chapters in the Bible, and at the right were the number of chapters I needed to complete each of the months listed.  (That kind of fell by the wayside.)

--I started with a goal of four chapters a day.  That meant I would have been finished by late October.  But that was a good thing, because several occurrences over the course of the year, including the passing of my father, meant that some days did not get the reading done.  So therefore I had plenty of padding to get done by the end of the year.

A former student posted that she read through the Bible in three years.  That is an appealing method.  It means that there is more time to read the commentator notes and digest what the authors are saying.  

I recommend reading through the Bible from time to time, and next time I will probably slow down, take my time, and therefore get even more out of it.  

Overall, reading the Bible this way was a blessing to me.