It was so great to see
Carson and her family last weekend. B enjoyed catching up with the girls over a wonderful dinner
at the Refectory. Let us all pray
for Carson as she listens to God's call. Of course if she comes here to Columbia, I can certainly ease
the pain of transition with my multitude of experience so far. Life remains busy even
at Seminary, last weekend the kids, Charles & I had to juggle 3 birthday
parties on Saturday, it was an extreme schedule, somehow we got everybody where
they needed to be and fed as well. The kids at one party even played musical
chairs while Charles ran through the few one handed tunes he knew on the piano. The hostess had a momentary memory
lapse on Piano playing. However his rudimentary playing inspired the memory of
the hostess and she was able to churn out two-handed tunes for the next rounds. The kids had a great
time visiting with Joe, Marci & their daughter for Halloween night and much
candy was obtained. S was a GI Joe while B was the blushing bride, as she
wanted a change from fairy princesses this year. She had truly wanted to be Super
Girl but we were unable to find a costume in time. I visited the Hindu
temple again and enjoyed watching the bathing of the main statue with water,
milk, honey, juice and other assorted ceremonial stuff. Again I assure you that I was not
convinced and am still very firmly grounded in Christianity. What is really interesting is Charles
now shares an office at work with an Indian, so he has been getting enlightened
as to Indian culture and Hinduism.
He comes home and asks me what I know about what his colleague shares. I'm done with Hindu at this point and am
now turning my attention to Buddhism. If you ever want to know how the Buddhists treat women, let
me know. I taught that portion of
the class last week and am working on a research paper on that topic. We are still working to
get S into the Talent Development program as we were just informed that he has
to take motivation and creativity tests which should happen over the next few
weeks. The teachers are allowing him to participate in some of the TD programs
so he is getting the extra challenge when possible. I just wonder if they will figure it out before it is time
for us to leave here? It is funny
to note that the TD teacher is the one that is working with him because, she
said, "I see he needs something more to challenge him." Duh? He is doing fine in school, but as some of you know, I can
be a bit over concerned about boredom in school for my children. It just seems to be taking them an
awfully long time to figure it out. B just took some tests
too, so we will be finding out soon if she will end up in the TD program for
her age group. Maybe it won't take
as long for them to work out that she is bored and needs some challenges. She told me the other day, that first
grade is so easy it seems like kindergarten. Just a footnote
here, this issue about TD is not a reflection on the schools, it's more about
the children and making sure they are challenged. I had the same concerns in Charlotte. Bored children who are intelligent can
find ways to entertain themselves and sometimes their choice of entertainment can
become a problem. I want to avoid
that with S & B and one way is to keep their minds challenged at school so
they won't have a chance to wander into mischievous behavior. Charles & S missed
seeing Carson and Co. during their visit because they were camping with the scouts
at Lake Alatona. They had fun, however they got very cold during the night and
were unable to get warm again until they gathered around a fire at 5 AM on
Sunday morning. Their sleep was also somewhat disturbed by a live concert that
was being held at a house across the lake that lasted until 2:45 AM -
supposedly the Den Chief called the police about the noise, which came to an abrupt
stop at that time. They had a
great time anyway. Studying is the
operative word around the house as Charles continues to pursue his project and
has recently been receiving lots of books for his research and I have started
adding to my collection too. Our Bookshelf spaces are running out which is all
we can cram into our living space.
So I guess we'll be piling the books up on the floor soon. Maybe we need to pack some more up and
transfer them to storage? My first semester is fast coming to an end the second week
of December. I'm holding my own in
my classes--high B's mostly, and an A on the Old Testament mid-term. In two of my classes I haven't received
any grades because I haven't had to turn in any work yet. I have most of Thanksgiving week off
from classes because most of my teachers are going to San Diego for the
Conference for Biblical Scholars.
I hope to use the extra time to get a head start on the final papers in
Greek Exegesis and Religions Encountered (the Buddhism one). Both are between 10-12 pages--the good
news is the one for Exegesis is from the book of John. We studied John in BB&T and you can
bet I'm digging out some of those old Sunday School Lessons. The Buddhism one, I've done a lot of
the research already. I'll be traveling to Ohio to see my grandmother this coming
weekend (November 16th).
She has had a bout with bronchial pneumonia this week, although she is
doing better now. Some of you may
remember that she is in a nursing home because of dementia. Being moved to the hospital for the
pneumonia was very troubling for her since her memory has deteriorated. She couldn't remember why she was in
the hospital--most of the time she doesn't remember where she is at the nursing
home anyway. At any rate she is
overdue for a visit from me. Speaking of traveling--we'll be coming to Charlotte for a
visit in December. Watch for us on
December 16th because we plan to be at Sardis that day. We are continuing our tradition of
seeing the Nutcracker for the holidays and will be enjoying the tradition at
the Blumenthal Theatre. The
children are excited about catching up with some friends and Charles and I are
excited to return to the "real" world if only for a moment. Please continue to pray for us as you are in our prayers
too.
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