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From Followers: Blogs I Follow...

podcast at somethingbeautifulpodcast.com - Julie Clawson's book EVERYDAY JUSTICE.


advent poetry blog. Anybody who loves Madeline L'Engle and George McDonald has my vote.

On a more serious note, someone was looking for scriptures for runaway children . . . Suggestions? Scriptures, links, books you like?

Rebus and beyond

I really like having a site meter.

Somebody was looking for a Christmas Rebus story. Rebus stories are a little tricky. The pictures are usually a character, place or thing ie. a noun. Not sure you can show action with a very simple repeatable picture. Maybe. Your describing words and prepositions, probably not.

Then all the words in between should be easy to read for new readers or in a context that would make them easy to figure out. Could be a fun project with power point or an easel with color copies of the pics you're using. You could use flannel, too.

It might also be fun to let the kids create their own Christmas rebus stories. Show them how to make a rebus and then turn them loose with paper and markers or copies of christmas scenes to cut and paste. Maybe you have cut out words to add between the pictures to paste in sequence. Or maybe you have pictures to paste in sequence with space to fill in (write) words.

Maybe you make it a very long Rebus that your class creates for a younger class to "read" & hang around their room.

And here is an idea from a writing class I took once. Using props to trigger a memory, write or draw a story about a Christmas from your past. Possible props: A smell (cinnamon or pine), an object (candle, ornament, pine bough), a sound (a jingle bell, a Christmas song,) something to touch or taste.

Put on your creative thinking cap and have fun with it.

I can never spell cinnamon...but guess what! Naamon in in there if you misspell Namon with one A - ha ha

Bulletin I finally remember because of "bullet" and "tin". Random, I know. But I spell it correctly more than I used to.

bible study tools online & random rambling

I was missing the Study Tools feature at Bible Gateway but I found one! biblestudytools.com: interlinear Bibles, lexicons, and such. I was looking up "Counselor" in Isaiah 9 and "Counselor/Comforter" in John 14.

This is an aside: My daughter and I were just talking about the difference between working online and holding an old recipe or a cookbook in your hand. A few days earlier we were talking about kids, wondering what if they didn't have access to electricity or technology and how easy it would be to see tactile media (books, magazines, etc) disappear. I told her, if you ever have kids and I'm not around, make sure they know how to survive without electricity and technology. Sound far-fetched? Maybe. Maybe not.

We definately get to practice when there's a power outage but what if it all goes down globally? When the ATM's don't work and the power doors don't open? Did you ever go to a grocery store when the machines were down and have a cashier who didn't know how to make change or even know how to handle money? There are definately people working hard to make sure that doesn't happen but still . . .

Hopefully it will remain only a "what if" for science fiction writers. The more challenging sci fi prompt would be to put God in the story. I'm guessing He wouldn't be quick to turn the power on.

another (random) activity for Jesus walking on the water

If you decide to use a little science for a scripture like the story of Jesus walking on the water (not to take away from the miracle of it) there is a book - a series of books to look at. When the kids were younger we found a book for making insects with moving parts and such. I THINK this is the book but I can't look inside so I don't know. If I remember correctly one of the insects was a water strider - the insect that walks on top of the water. It was a very cool hands-on book for kids (crafts and facts). If this is in fact the book, turns out there is a whole series of books like that.