Quote #4

I really do intend to get to some quotes from Knowing God but I keep coming across such good quotes in my other reading.  In our Gileskirk Christendom Introduction there are these two quotes:

"The most important fact about the subject of education is that there is no such thing.  Education is not a subject, and it does not deal in subjects.  It is instead the transfer of a way of life."

~G.K. Chesterton

"Somehow, our whole approach to teaching and learning has gone awry.... Although we often succeed in teaching our pupils subjects, we fail lamentably on the whole in teaching them how to think.  They learn everything except the art of learning."

Want to take a guess who that quote is from?  I'll post the answer soon.

Happy learning....

Quote #3

While reading in my textbook, written by my teacher, for my class Government and the Constitution, I came across a quote that I consider worth sharing:

"The restraint of the government

is the true liberty and freedom of 

the people."

~Common eighteenth-century saying

As a side note:

Mom, Caity, and I have been reading Knowing God by J.I. Packer for a book discussion club that we started with some friends. Though only on chapter 3, I have found some wonderful quotes and amazing concepts! Good thing this book is for discussion though because one finds a LOT of meat to chew one right off the bat. I highly recommend this book to everyone! I hope to have more time to post about what I'm learning from the book but for now it's time to help with dinner. =D

~Striving for Christ,

><>Marissa<><

In memory of Ol' Faithful

Who said anything about spoiled?

Mark and the dogs

One of many trips to the creek

So if by the title and pictures you hadn't guessed; my black lab passed away. She was old and gray but just had just a little too much energy left in her old age. For years our dogs have been indoor pets and more like part of the family than animals... we even tend to talk to them at times. =D When we leave the house however we pen the dogs up or else Sweetie tends to go visiting the neighbors; well lately Houdini found she could jump the fence and do whatever she liked despite many scoldings. Try as we might to fix any place where she could possibly get out, she found a new way. At this point you may be wondering what any of this has to do with her death, well okay I'll get on with it. So yesterday we left for town and we got back home after dark to find that Sally was no longer in the pen and could only guess she had gone to the neighbors once again; but this morning after sleeping in, the first thing I hear is that Daddy found Sally. She had obviously tried jumping the fence and her hind leg got caught up really bad and she couldn't get out. This is a case, not of 'curiosity killed the cat,' but 'rebellion killed the dog.'  

This really brought certain parts of Ecclesiastes 3 home to me today. "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: 

a time to be born,

 and a time to die....

a time to weep,

 and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn,

 and a time to dance...

a time to gain, 

 and a time to lose."

I did a lot of commemorating this morning remembering all the good (and not so good) times we shared with her:

• picking her out from the breeder
  
• her sleeping under the air conditioner in the car as we drove home
  
• her squeezing out of the wholes in the fence (yes she was an escapee even as a puppy)
  
• her pulling me around and getting me lost in the woods  when I was no more than 7
  
• the excitement of watching her run when I ran and walk right beside me when I walked
  
• taking her on camping trips
  
• laughing at her and Buck as Sally retrieved sticks out in a lake and Buck would run up, steal it from her, and bring it to us
  
• hikes to the creek
  
• her making foot prints in our sled run every winter
  
• her face buried in snow while her tail wagged in the air
  
• her growling, running, and barking in her sleep
  
• her fear of coughing, gum bubbles popping, and thunder storms
  
• digging holes in our flower beds
  
• getting underfoot in the kitchen
• Sunday morning jogs with the dogs and Daddy
• and of corse jumping fences
  

I can certainly see where people got the idea for the saying "a dog is a boys best friend." =D

~Striving for Christ,

><>Marissa<><

Quote #2

I'm reading Knowing God by J.I. Packer.  I'm only on chapter 2 but am already overwhelmed with the immensity of the wisdom contained, of course the subject matter is huge and so worth "knowing".  Here is a quote from Chapter 1 that was very meaningful to me as I struggle to really comprehend these thoughts and absorb the material I am reading/studying along with Caity in her Gileskirk Moral Philosophy study.

"Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that on knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God." - J.I. Packer, Knowing God, chapter 1

simple & home-grown boquets

and then just more beautiful flowers that didn't make it into any arrangements

more from the garden

We actually harvested the lettuce and broccoli back in August, but I didn't get around to posting the picture of it ;)



raspberries from "Curtis's Garden"


a green bean trellis

Quote 1

Hi All,  

I've found some great quotes lately in the books I've been reading and I thought I'd post them here so I can keep track of them.  Hopefully some of them will bless you as they have blessed me. 

The first one was shared with me by my friend, Courtney.  Here it is:

"If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work.  The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable.  Favorable conditions never come."

--C.S. Lewis, "Learning in War-Time", The Weight of Glory

I've fallen into the temptation to say "I don't have time to..., maybe I can do....at a different season of life".  Although I do think there are seasons of life and some things just don't fit in the current season of life (like sewing just doesn't seem to fit right now), I think it is most beneficial to see every season as an opportunity to learn.  So, I'm challenging myself to try and read something valuable (in addition to the Bible) everyday and really take the time to meditate on it.  Which is the perfect lead in to the next quote....maybe tomorrow.

Photos from the State Fair

here are Marissa and My entries in the fair:


a twin sized log cabin quilt with appliqued flowers (mine)

a knit blouse (mine)

skirt and jacket outfits
Marissa and I made it really hard for the judges this year: Marissa (black and gray) added piping to the seams plus used french seams rather than a regular flat seam and her skirt has the black stripe on the bottom edge, Mine (brown) the jacket is reversible and the skirt is bias with a zipper. =D

Marissa's dress

a pleated cotton skirt (mine)

a baby blanket by Marissa

One tradition we have at the State Fair is to eat Navajo Tacos at the Indian Village each year. Saturday morning before we left for the fair we video-chatted with Curtis and he said that there is a restaurant in Moscow that serves Navajo Tacos; so while we were at the fair Curtis went by and ordered himself a taco. Here are the pictures of the ID and NM tacos.

Curtis' Navajo Taco

a Navajo Taco from the fair




relaxin' after lunch

a footzie-wootzie

Daddy and the boys

Marissa and the photoagrapher =D

and a few flowers =)

if you know us at all, you know that we cannot have a garden without also having flowers =)

fruits and veggies

God has blessed us with so much rain here this summer and Curtis invested some of his time in hooking up a drip system in Mom's garden. Here are a few pictures of our garden and the produce that we have harvested so far. Needless to say, we have quite an abundance of home-grown veggies and soon to have lots of fruits too =).