Ok is there a regular exercise thread here? I'm in! Time to get back on the wagon for me... Tomorrow morning: weight training at the gym!

Will provide room and board in Hawaii for 20hr/week babysitting. :D We do not have a TV

:iagree: This is interesting. I don't recall which lecture it was, but I found your insights on elitism (in regards to accelerated education) thought provoking. What are we all really after here?

Another Dover supporter here. Amazon carries them. Also, Google 'free mandalas to color' and you will find plenty of free, beautiful geometric designs to download and print.

Thank you!!!

:bigear: no one?

Absolutely crossing the line. Wow. I would confront the cashier.

Ack fast board tonight. Bump.

Woot! Free book! :lol:

What is the composition playing in the background here? I have been trying to figure it out and I can't. It is the background music in profile on Spanish sculptor Ruiz Montes. Yes. He is amazing. Thank you in advance!

I love this observation.

I go back to this article often, it is one of my absolute favorites. The link is not available, so I will just cut and paste. An Appreciation for Doubt Wonder, glory of mystery get swept aside by self-righteousness By Pastor Peter W. Marty, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Davenport, Iowa. Pastor Marty lectures and writes frequently on faith matters. Taken from "The Lutheran" magazine, September 2010 Who doesn't love the experience of having confident faith? There is something thrilling about strapping oneself to a way of life that Jesus considers powerfully Godcentered. But Lutheran Christians are at their best when they prize humility more than certainty. Our duty is not to claim to know more than we do. If anything, we have a responsibility to learn how to make wise choices without always needing to be entirely sure. A popular myth in our day elevates absolute certainty in spiritual matters as the goal to which we all should aspire. Yet certainty becomes a small "g" god when it turns ideological. It assumes incredibly seductive powers. Devout believers start becoming obsessed with being right. They know the precise purposes of God. They are absolutely sure that God dislikes the exact same people and things they do. There is little question of who wins the approval of God and who does not. This is not a variety of believing around which to fashion a life. It leaves love on the periphery. It voids the surprise that deserves to go with faith. If absolute certainty in knowing the mind of God is imperative, the journey of faith quickly becomes impoverished. All of the incomprehensibles — the unanswerable questions — will have to be ignored or short-changed. The wonder and glory of mystery will have to be shelved. God will look more domesticated than our favorite pet. Novelist Marilynne Robinson speaks of cultivating a degree of uncertainty in her writing, considering it a form of reverence. "There is something about certainty that makes Christianity very un-Christian," she writes. Perhaps it is the absence of spiritual modesty, our claiming to know more than we really do. Or maybe it is a misunderstanding of the place of doubt. The opposite of faith isn't doubt — it's certainty. Doubt is really quite beautiful. For too long we have been denying doubt the respect it deserves. Theologian Frederick Buechner once called it the "ants in the pants of faith." How true. It keeps us on our toes. It rescues us from the excesses of certainty. "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble," Mark Twain said one time. "It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." At the very end of Matthew's Gospel account, Jesus commissions his disciples to head out into the world and bear witness to the truth and power of God. Most of us know his section of Scripture by the oft-repeated line: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations ..." (28:19). It's a culminating moment in the Gospel when the nowresurrected Christ turns over his ministry to the now-seasoned disciples. Matthew writes of the moment: "When they saw [Jesus], they worshiped him; but some doubted" (28:17). This is the way most Bibles translate the experience. The problem, as New Testament professor Mark Allan Powell points out, is that the word "some" doesn't appear in Greek manuscripts. Translators have inserted the idea that some doubted, evidently to satisfy their own theology and suggest that doubt is somehow the opposite of faith or worship. Nothing could be further from the truth. The disciples worshiped and they doubted. Period. All of them. Matthew never suggests that the disciples were free of doubt or that they should have been. Doubt intersects with our faith lives in profound ways, ensuring that we don't become too certain that we are right. Few things seem to have boiled the blood of Jesus more than religious people who behaved as if they knew all things. Self-righteousness is the fancy name for such behavior. Jesus railed against any number of supremely religious people who knew how to tithe every spice in their cupboard but had no clue how to love their neighbor. In our day, the most thoughtful forms of faith will always point toward the truth, without claiming to possess it entirely. Integrity in our personal lives and civility in our congregations will grow wherever we figure out that loving others is more important than being right. Isn't that one of the gifts of love — to bring the arrogance of certainty to its knees?

I had no problem using hotmail for dd8.

Great pictures! :party:

You know, I would be very tempted to act absurdly in this situation. Return the favor. Put on ridiculous clothing, sit down next to them and engage in conversation. Do things to be incredibly annoying. Correct their grammar. Ask them to specify exactly what/who they are talking about each time they use a pronoun. Ask them what gender they are. Talk extensively about your oral health. They will leave without any further prompting.

OK Hive. Weird Things That Bother Me #1 The math for this drives me a little bonkers. There is no apparent pattern to the post numbers required for a jump to the next level: 11 30 60 60 49 100 100 140 200 1750 1000 1500 2500 2500 The patterning of the tiles in some public bathrooms bother me in the same way. Bees are mathematical creatures, why not base it on factors of 120 or powers of six? Perhaps a combination of the two would be better? The Hexagon is one of nature's 'perfect figures,' and the honeycomb is a lovely model of mathematical efficiency. I would have loved to find a beautiful little pattern in the steps. Yours Truly, Deviant Nurse Bee

:hurray::party: Congrats to all of you! How exciting!

Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison Pan's Labyrinth 3:10 to Yuma Capote LOTR Dumb and Dumber Galaxy Quest Silence of the Lambs. Or maybe not... all of the other Adam Sandler movies When they can vote we will watch the Breaking Bad series

It reminds me of Charlotte Mason's emphasis on positive habit formation.

Scientific American Mind ran an article last month about "a comprehensive social and emotional learning program for pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students, [which] is informed by current research in the fields of cognitive neuroscience, mindful education, social and emotional learning, positive psychology, and evidence-based teaching practices." This curriculum is already being used in some American public schools. It was developed by Goldie Hawn and her foundation. Who knew? Not me. MindUp claims to "help students become more resilient, focused and mindful learners." Lessons include deep belly breathing, attentive listening and brain physiology. I am trying not to jump to any conclusions. Has anyone heard about this? I am off to re-read the article and dive into some research.

Ages four and five have been challenging. I am sure dad being gone does not help... How do you deal with this? My headache today is NOT helping. I am being tested to the point of exhaustion.

Enjoy! How long are you on Oahu?

:grouphug:

We live on Oahu in Hawaii. I love the beach and the views. The weather pretty much never changes and I think I have become a bit complacent. Not in a good way. I think there is part of my soul that needs to feel a crispness in the air and chop firewood. I can't imagine retiring here.

In the spirit of your recent read about Harry Truman's road trip, I recommend Motoring with Mohammed by Eric Hansen, and Across China by Peter Jenkins. Adventure and education!