Archive | October 2009

Hymn #10: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Lyrics: Isaac Watts

Music: HAMBURG by Lowell Mason.

Mr. Eustache, the musician in the above video clip, is a committed Christian: “I believe –the same way the great J.S. Bach did– that I make music both for the glory of God & the ‘sublimation of the human soul’, affecting people positively in His name, & that by being a creative musician I am simply fulfilling the statement that ‘we have been created to His Image & similarity”‘ I also have the deep conviction that, as a creative-improvising musician, I am fulfilling God’s command to ‘Sing unto the Lord a new song’, that it is possible to be openly creative –with infinite capabilities ideas wise– because of His promise that states that ‘His blessings are new every morning’.”

Theme: But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ. Philippians 3:7-8.

When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of Glory died;
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
save in the death of Christ, my God;
all the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.

See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
or thorns compose so rich a crown.

His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

This hymn may be my favorite of all the hymns about the cross of Christ.

What if it were True? What if the God of the Universe really did become man, live among us, endure the pain of living and even the pain of death, an ignominious tortured death on a cross? What if He did it for the sake of love, love for His very torturers? Would it not demand your soul, your life, your music, your stories, your all?

Word Association

Oct8

I copied this meme from Unconscious Mutterings.

Yacht ::

Rich

Paula ::

Abdul

Delete ::

cross out

Auto ::

mobile

Obsolete ::

discarded

Dedicated ::

volunteer

Old ::

aged

Convince ::

advertise

Poster ::

board

Erase ::

blackboard

The funny thing is I don’t know who Paula Abdul is, or even if that’s the right name for whomever it is that I’m thinking of. I’m not sure my unconscious mutterings are of much interest to the blog world at large, but I do enjoy word games.

Read Aloud Thursday: A Pumpkin a Day

Oct8

So to celebrate October, I checked out a bunch of pumpkin books from the library, and we’re reading through them –one a day.

On Sunday night, we read How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara. In this story, Charlie’s teacher Mr. Tiffin has his first grade class guess how many seeds will be inside three pumpkins: one small, one medium-sized, and one large.

On Monday morning, before cutting our two pumpkins, we named them Charlie and Sally, and we measured their circumference and height and counted the ribs on the side of each pumpkin. How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? told us that more ribs means more seeds. We each tried to draw one of the pumpkins. Then we opened up our little pumpkins, scooped out all the seeds, and cooked the pumpkin in the oven. We used the cooked pumpkin to make two pumpkin pies —which disappeared before I could get a picture of them. Also on Monday, we read Pumpkin Town by Katie McKy, and all of us, even twelve year old Karate Kid, enjoyed the story of a pumpkin vine gone wild that takes over the town.

On Tuesday, Z-baby (age 8) and I read half of the easy reader Oh My Pumpkin Pie by Charles Ghigna. It’s OK for an easy read, but the problem with the easy readers for Z-Baby is that they’re much too silly and immature for her to enjoy them or become absorbed in them. She’s listening to Anne of Green Gables and Ballet Shoes. But her reading level is on par with Oh My Pumpkin Pie, a cute book but not terribly interesting for an intelligent eight year old. I haven’t figured out what to do about this issue.

On Wednesday, we finished reading Oh My Pumpkin Pie, and I read Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper to Karate Kid and Z-baby. The illustrations in this particular book are beautiful. I suggested that the urchins try copying one of the illustrations, but Karate Kid said that he couldn’t. Z-Baby, however, made an attempt. I asked the kids if they’d rather make pumpkin soup or pumpkin butter. Of course they went for the sweet stuff. We used this recipe for the pumpkin butter.

We also roasted the pumpkin seeds. It was easy. I washed the seeds, poured melted butter over them, and salted them with seasoned salt. Then I put them in the oven at a low temperature, about 200 degrees, for about 0 to 30 minutes. The urchins all tried the seeds, but the only one who really liked them was Karate Kid.

Today we’ll read another pumpkin book, but we’ve run out of pumpkin from our two pumpkins to cook. I’ll either need to buy more pumpkins or buy some canned pumpkin if we’re to have more cooking adventures.

Hope Is the Word sponsors and hosts Read Aloud Thursday.

Picture Book Preschool Book of the Week: Week 41

Oct8

Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. You can purchase a downloadable version (pdf file) of Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early at Biblioguides.

October 5-11 is Fire Prevention Week, and that’s the theme in Week 41 of Picture Book Preschool. The book I want to share with you from this week’s list is Blaze and the Forest Fire by C.W. Anderson. In this exciting story Billy and his horse Blaze must report a forest fire to the nearest authorities. Will they get there in time to save the forest?

Blaze and the Forest Fire is only one in a series of Billy and Blaze books that were written and illustrated by Mr. Anderson starting back in 1936 with Billy and Blaze, the story of how Billy receives Blaze as a birthday present. The other books in the series are:

Blaze and the Gypsies (1937)
Blaze and the Forest Fire (1938)
Blaze Finds the Trail (1950)
Blaze and the Thunderbolt (1955)
Blaze and the Mountain Lion (1959)

Blaze and the Indian Cave (1964)
Blaze and the Lost Quarry (1966)
Blaze and the Gray Spotted Pony (1968)
Blaze Shows the Way (1969)
Blaze Finds Forgotten Roads (1970)

Mr. Anderson died in 1971, so no more Billy and Blaze books were forthcoming. However, the books were reprinted in the early 1990’s by Aladdin Publishers in nice softcover editions with the original timeless illustrations. Check out Blaze and the Forest Fire from the library, and if you become a fan, collect all eleven of the stories.

Hymn #11: Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

Oct7

Lyrics: Joachim Neander, 1680. Translated from German to English by Catherine Winkworth, 1863.

Music: LOBE DEN HERREN (composer unknown).

Theme:

That my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.
Psalm 30:12

Catherine Winkworth was a notable translator of German hymns into English; over 100 hymns are listed at HymnTime with her name as translator, including:

Fear not O Little Flock
Now Thank We All Our God
Out of the Depths I Cry to Thee (by Martin Luther)
Whate’er My God Ordains Is Right

1 Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise him, for he is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear,
Now to his temple draw near,
Join me in glad adoration.

2 Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under his wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen
How thy desires e’er have been
Granted in what he ordaineth?

3 Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee!
Surely his goodness and mercy here daily attend thee;
Ponder anew
What the Almighty will do,
If with his love he befriend thee!

4 Praise to the Lord, who with marvelous wisdom hath made thee,
Decked thee with health, and with loving hand guided and stayed thee.
How oft in grief
Hath not he brought thee relief,
Spreading his wings to o’ershade thee!

5 Praise to the Lord! O let all that is in me adore him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before him.
Let the Amen
Sound from his people again;
Gladly for aye we adore him.

This one is absolutely my favoritest praise hymn of them all. When I am in prayer and I need to burst into song, I sing this hymn and listen to it reverberate off my windshield. Then, I usually follow it up with To God Be the Glory.

What joy!

Images from Baseball for Middle School Readers

Oct7

Mudville by Kurtis Scaletta.

The Girl Who Threw Butterflies by Mick Cochrane.

I’m not really a sports fan, but if I were going to be a sports fan, I’d probably pick baseball. There’s something special about baseball books. They get all metaphorical and philosophical on you, and yet they’re still tied to a physical game. It’s fun, and it’s poetic, and it’s baseball details —all at the same time.

In The Girl Who Threw Butterflies the conceit is that life and relationships are like a knuckleball pitch, aka a butterfly pitch or a floater.

“The knuckleball wasn’t just a pitch. It was an attitude toward life. It was a way of being in the world. It was a philosophy. “You don’t aim a butterfly,” her father used to say. “You release it.” Each pitch had a life of its own. It wasn’t about control, it wasn’t about muscle. Each floating and fluttering pitch was a little miracle. It was all about surprise. To her, though she would never say so, every knuckleball she threw seemed like a living thing, each of them full of impish high spirits.”

Molly, the central character in this novel, is dealing with the recent death of her father and with the growing pains associated with being thirteen and the only child of a grieving mother. Molly’s relationship with her mother is sort of like pitching in a baseball game; Molly releases bits of information to her mother, and sometimes the pitch is perfectly controlled and other times it goes wild and starts a huge argument. Molly is quite interested in communication, in the sign language that coaches use to signal their players, in the codes that scorekeepers use to score a baseball game, in the nonverbal cues that define her relationship with her mom and with friends. The book is full of these analogies and metaphors, and if I had time I would go back and re-read it just to enjoy the richness of the story and the parallelsbetween the game of baseball and the game of life.

Mudville, the other baseball book that I read, has its own baseball magic going on. As Molly is missing her father, Roy the protagonist and narrator in Mudville is missing his mother. She left five years and hasn’t returned to Moundville, the town where Roy lives with his dad. And Sturgis, Roy’s foster brother and the other central character in the book, is missing father and mother. However, the real tragedy in Moundville, nicknamed Mudville for good reason, is that it’s been raining for twenty-two years, every day, ever since the Moundville baseball team had its game with arch-rival Sinister Bend called because rain in the final inning. Twenty-two years ago when Roy’s dad was a player on the Moundville team. Now Roy’s father rainproofs house for a living, and SInister Bend has been swept away by a flood. And Roy dreams of becoming a Major League catcher.

Mudville is more of a boys’ book, a little less philosophical but no less poetic and atmospheric than The Girl Who Threw Butterflies. It’s less about communication and more about possibilities, about “what-if”. What if it rained every day for twenty-two years? What if the rain suddenly stopped? What if there were a curse on the town that caused the rain? What if there wasn’t? What if the Cubs won the World Series? What if Moundville were able to put a baseball team together and win against the Sinister Bend, against all odds? What if the best pitcher on the Moundville team deserted to the opposing team?

Both of these books will appeal to baseball fans, but also to anyone who enjoys sports metaphors and a touch of magical realism. They would be best for seventh and eighth graders, the upper end of the Middle Grade Fiction category for the Cybils competition. If I were a librarian and I managed to sell one of these two to a reader who enjoyed it, I’d immediately put the other book in that reader’s hands, along with James Preller’s Six Innings and perhaps Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park, both from last year.

Hymn #12: How Firm a Foundation

Oct6

Lyrics: K., published in John Rippon’s A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors, 1787.

Music: PROTECTION from a compilation of tunes by Joseph Funk, sung here by Fernando Ortega:

Or here’s an alternate tune from Sovereign Grace:

Theme: Fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you. Isaiah 43:2

This hymn was sung at the funerals of U.S. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, also at the funeral of General Robert E. Lee. It was a favorite hymn of Andrew Jackson’s beloved wife, Rachel, who died before his inauguration, and Jackson asked to hear it on his deathbed to remind him that he would go to join her heaven.

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
To you, who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In povertyâ€™s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.

Fear not, I am with you, O be not dismayed,
For I am your God and will still give you aid;
Iâ€™ll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call you to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
For I will be with you, your troubles to bless,
And sanctify to you your deepest distress.

When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be your supply;
The flame shall not hurt you; I only design
Your dross to consume, and your gold to refine.

Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
Iâ€™ll never, no never, no never forsake.

This hymn is unusual in that it uses the words of God to speak to us, which we then sing back to Him. I especially love singing those last lines: “That soul though all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no never, no never, forsake!”

Hallelujah!

Texas Tuesday: Joseph A. Altsheler

Oct6

In 1918 Joseph A. Altsheler was voted by the nation’s public librarians the most popular author of boys’ books in the United States.

I had never heard of him. Had you?

Altsheler, who lived and wrote around the turn of the century until his death in 1919, wrote historical adventures stories set during the Civil War and the Westward movement. One of of his adventure series was set in Texas:

The Texan Series
The Texan Star, the story of a great fight for liberty (1912)
The Texan Scouts, the story of the Alamo and Goliad (1913)
The Texan Triumph, a romance of the San Jacinto campaign (1913)

I was able to find the middle book in the series at the library, and so I ordered it and read it. It took a few pages for me to get into the story of a teenaged “scout” and his two adult companions who are scouring the countryside for signs that the Mexican army under Santa Anna is coming to invade Texas. Of course, they find exactly what they’re looking for. Ned, the teen protagonist, accidentally runs across the Mexican army at least six or eight times over the course of the book. He’s captured and escapes three times; he conceals himself in a serape and makes his way through Santa Anna’s army as a spy at least twice. Ned witnesses the fall of the Alamo and the massacre at Goliad. He becomes friends with Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, and he confronts both Captain Urrea (General Urrea’s nephew) and General Santa Anna multiple times. In short, it’s an unbelievably adventurous tale with barely room to breathe and turn the page between major historical events for all of which Ned has a ringside seat and a major part to play.

Ned is brave, somewhat hot-tempered, but wise beyond his years. Santa Anna and almost all of the Mexican officers are portrayed as courageous, but also cruel, deceitful and vain. The Texans are woefully outnumbered, but they are sure the righteousness of their cause will enable them to prevail. Even Ned’s horse is a heroic figure, responding to Ned’s least command and helping Ned to escape his enemies more than once.

OK, it sounds totally hokey. It is definitely one-sided. The Mexican peasants in Santa Anna’s army are dupes and ignorant cannon fodder. The Texans are all brave and honest and true. Nevertheless, the more I read the more I enjoyed this un-nuanced, bigger than life version of the pivotal events of Texas history. After all, it’s a good thing to know the myth before (if) you start debunking it. And Santa Anna was a villain.

The same, mostly homeschooled, boys and parents who have made a market for G.A. Henty’s historical fiction accounts of boyhood bravado in the midst of historical events would love these books, too. Altsheler’s Texan series is available in paperback reprint editions at Amazon and since it’s no longer subject to copyright it’s also available for various eReaders. His other series set during the Civil War, the French and Indian War, and other places and times on the American frontier are also available.

Especially if you have boys to please, I recommend you check one out from the library and try it. The language is early twentieth century, but not too difficult. Maybe read aloud at first and stop at a strategic moment. (Yes, I have been known to pull such tricks.) You might inspire a boy to become a brave, independent, resourceful (Texan) patriot.

Other Texas-themed posts from around the web this week:
Gautami Tripathy reviews Lonestar Secrets by Collen Coble.
Melissa Wiley on The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly, a juvenile fiction title which takes places on a Texas pecan farm.
Melissa at Book Nut interviews Jacqueline Kelly.
Jen Robinson reviews The Sweetheart of Prosper County by Jill Alexander.

Hymn #13: O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus

Oct5

Lyrics: Samuel Trevor Francis, 1875.

Music: EBENEZER by Thomas John Williams, 1890.

Theme: It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. John 13:1.

Samuel Trevor Francis experienced God’s love in an especially compelling way one cold, winter night. At a point in life when his faith had wavered, Francis found himself walking across London’s Hungerford Bridge. Mulling over his sadness and loneliness, he heard a whisper tempting him to end his misery and jump into the churning waters below.

Fortunately, Francis didn’t heed the dark voice. Instead, he heard God’s reassuring words speaking to him in the night. On that bridge, he reaffirmed his faith in Jesus Christ, and put complete trust in him as his Savior.~The Center for Church Music

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward to Thy glorious rest above!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches o’er His loved ones, died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth, watcheth o’er them from the throne!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of every love the best!
‘Tis an ocean vast of blessing, ’tis a haven sweet of rest!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, ’tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee!

Other hymns extolling the love of God:

Hymn #32: How Deep the Father’s Love for Us

Hymn #35: The Love of God

Hymn #80: Here Is Love Vast As the Ocean

Advanced Reading Survey: Agamemnon by Aeschylus

Oct5

I’ve decided that on Mondays I’m going to revisit the books I read for a course in college called Advanced Reading Survey, taught by the eminent scholar and lovable professor, Dr. Huff. I’m not going to re-read all the books and poems I read for that course, probably more than fifty, but I am going to post to Semicolon the entries in the reading journal that I was required to keep for that class because I think that my entries on these works of literature may be of interest to readers here and because I’m afraid that the thirty year old spiral notebook in which I wrote these entries may fall apart ere long. I may offer my more mature perspective on the books, too, if I remember enough about them to do so.

Agamemnon is the first play in a trilogy of ancient Greek plays called The Oresteia., the only such trilogy out of the canon of Greek drama to survive to the present time. The Oresteia was originally performed at the Dionysia festival in Athens in 458 BC, where it won first prize. Aeschylus himself is is the oldest of the three great Greek dramatists, and of his eighty or more plays, seven survive.

Characters:
Agamemnon: King of Argos
Clytemnestra: wife of Agamemnon
Cassandra: daughter of (deceased) King Priam of Troy and now slave of Agamemnon
Aegistheus: son of Thyestes, cousin to Agamemnon
Watchman
Herald
Chorus of Argive Elders

Quotations:
Chorus: “Zeus–if to the Unknown
That name of many names seem good—
Zeus, upon Thee I call.

Agamemnon: Twixt woe and woe I dwell.

Chorus:
The show of weeping and of ruth
To the forlorn will all men pay,
But of the grief their eyes display,
Naught to the heart doth pierce its way.
And with the joyous they beguile
Their lips into a feign`ed smile,
And force a joy unfelt the while.

Chorus:
The slayer of today shall die tomorrow–
The wage of wrong is woe.
(For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23)

Agamemnon:
For few are they who have such inborn grace,
As to look up with love and envy not,
When stands another on the height of weal.

Clytemnestra:
Already we have reaped enough the harvest field of guilt:
Enough of wrong and murder, let no other blood be spilt.

Oh, but the blood-spilling is only continuing in Agamemnon; revenge must be taken. There is no “gift of God” to put an end to the cycle of an eye for an eye.