I recant...

...what I said earlier on about the next Junto book.

Maddie & I were really excited about Quo Vadis when we first decided to try it. But then we started reading it. It isn't overwhelmingly interesting and seems a little odd. Maybe it will turn out to be a great book, but we'd rather do a book that we're confident will be good. So we've changed our literary choice again. :-)

The current book is now The Warden by Anthony Trollope. From what I've read, it's the story of a minister, named Septimus Harding,  who is in charge of a charity in town. A newcomer to the area becomes suspicious of how the warden is managing the tithes he receives, and sets out to put everything to right. The only thing that keeps him from outright condemning the minister, however, is that he likes Mr. Harding's daughter! What a predicament!

The book is the first in a series of six chronicling the lives of the people living in the area, but for now we're just going to stick to reading the first - it's pretty short (just over 200 pages) so we're going to read it in the month of April.

Well, I've got to run......I hope everyone is enjoying the lovely spring weather!

4 Things

1. My uncle has been staying with us for the past few days, and introduced us to Blokus. Oh my (not) goodness. I'm irreversibly addicted. Who knew that connecting a bunch of random shapes of squares together could be so entertainingly strategic? Ahhhhhhhh......
2. Speaking of epiphanies, the other day I was hanging out on Wikipedia (yeah, yeah, I know, it's up there with reading the dictionary.....which I'm also a culprit of), and to my utter joy, I discovered IT IS AVAILABLE IN LATIN. Then I looked and, behold, Wiktionary, Wikisource, Wikiquote, etc. etc. were the same! It was nearly too much excitement for me to handle at once. Despite my -300 vocabulary count of Latin words, it's pretty fun to go through all the articles pretending you understand what's being said. See, nerds do have fun. :-)
3. These look like some pretty cool notebooks. When I finally make it to Europe, I'm definitely going to bring one along! The whole concept of a city guide combined with a travel journal strikes me as indisputably brilliant.
4. A week ago my pastor preached a great sermon on a topic you rarely hear about these days in most churches - the necessity of  being wary of false christs. Perversions of Christianity are incredibly more dangerous than false religions because it's hard to detect them. They're like rat poison - 99% of it is food, but the remaining 1% is pernicious and toxic enough to destroy you. We really do have to be "as shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves." (Matthew 10:16)

Great literature

A while back I found this story I wrote from 5th grade - back in the day when writing class was the bane of my existence. Ha.

Once there was this old woman who was a grandma and she was the type that drove REALLY slowly, and that people would honk at. So, one day she sent her favorite granddaughter a set of her favorite book series. Since she was old, she forgot to put any clue of who it was from on the package.

When her grandaughter got it, she got really excited and went straight to her sunny bedroom to read her new books. Two days later, she realized that she should send a thank-you note to the person who sent it. So, since she had saved the package, she began to look for any identification.

Since there was none, she was really confused because she couldn't tell who it was from. (She was only 11 1/2 and 22 days old so it wasn't like she was an agent from the FBI or CIA or something, though she was pretty bright. For a blond.) One day Granny decided to come over for a visit. On her way on the 35 mph road, she was going at like 2mph so tons of people were honking and skipping her. Man, was she s-l-o-w! When she finally got there, Martha, (her granddaughter,) ran to the door to greet her. When she asked her how she liked the books she sent her, Martha realized that it was her grandmother who gave her the books and told her about them. And, as usual, they lived happily ever after. The end.

 I know, this ought to be admitted into the short stories section of the Great Books canon.

3 Observations -

1. This is back in the day when I was strangely obsessed with frumpy really old fashioned names. Who the heck has been named Martha after 1990?!?! No offense to anyone who is. Cough.
2. The main character (the aforesaid Martha) eerily resembles myself at the date of "publication" - yours truly was
   
   
   • 11 1/2 (not sure about the 22 days), 
   • liked to read and was obsessed with the Mandie series, 
   • always wanted a "sunny bedroom," 
   • probably would disappear for several days upon receiving a box full of books, 
   • saved packaging from presents,
   • had blond hair, 
   • and I still have a problem with getting thank-you notes to people.

3. Wow. I had forgotten about how sarcastic I was.

Anyways, I also used my magnificent artistic skills and illustrated my story.....

Granny's wrinkles sort of look like cut marks. That'd be sort of weird to have an emo grandmother.......

Martha seems to be missing a leg. I wonder how that happened.

Ahh, the discoveries made from the past.

The Queen of Sheba

 The Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba

Charles Spurgeon:

Queens have many cares, multitudes of occupations and engagements, but the Queen of Sheba neither considered it beneath her dignity to search into the wisdom of Solomon, nor a waste of valuable time to journey into his dominions. How many offer the vain excuse that they cannot give due attention to the religion of Jesus Christ for want of time; they have a large family, or a very difficult business to manage. This woman rebukes such, for she left her kingdom, and threw off the cares of state to take a long journey, that she might listen to the royal sage.

Her royal court was, doubtless, already stored with wisdom. The princes of the Eastern realms were always careful to gather to themselves a band of wise men, who found in their patronage both subsistence and honor. In the court of so great a lover of learning as was the Queen of Sheba, there would certainly be a congress of magi and wise men; but she was not content with what she knew already, she was determined to search after this Divine wisdom, of which she had heard the fame. In this she rebukes those of you who think you know enough; who suppose that your own home-spun intelligence will suffice, without sitting at the feet of Jesus. If you dream that human wisdom can be a sufficient light without receiving the brighter beams of revelation; if you say, "These things are for the unintelligent and poor, we will not listen to them," this queen, whose court was full of wisdom, and yet who leaves it all to find the wisdom which God had given to Solomon, rebukes you. The wisdom of Jesus Christ as much surpasses all human knowledge as the sun outshines a candle. Comparison there can be none, contrast there is much. He who will not come to the fountain which brims with wisdom, but trusts to his own leaking cisterns, shall wake up too late to find himself a fool.