Six Word Saturday

Six Word Saturday: Opening Day and White Sox won! For more Six Word Saturday click here.

April Fools Joke

Made ya look!

Postlee Sobranya

Amy is off school for the week which gives her the opportunity to post observations like this . . . When Dave was in Russia, back in 1992, he used to send me tapes of himself talking. He would also tape other people around him. He was working hard, learning the language, and he would often practice his Russian on me. I used to listen to the cassettes several times while driving in the car. So, there are still several Russian phrases that pop into my consciousness from time to time. Postlee sobranya is one of them. Not that it's spelled correctly, mind you. But it means, "after meeting." Dave was talking to his friends in church about going sledding with some of the youth, and the person said, "postlee sobranya." So, every once in a while, I'll just say, to whomever is listening, "postlee sobranya." It happens with other phrases as well, and in other languages. I took French in high school and college. Then, as a senior in college, I badly needed an EASY class, as I was QUITE burned out. I took Spanish. BIG mistake. HUGE. (Name the movie I'm quoting here.) Funny thing, Spanish and French are similar...I get them mixed up, a lot! But every once in a while, I remember how to say the "Hail Mary" in French, and the other day at work, I sat through an entire parent meeting in Spanish, and I knew what they were saying, for the most part. I should use this affinity for languages for good...but usually I just fling random foreign words around for anyone who's around. And the response I get, "huh?" doesn't seem to stop me. See you later, or, as I like to say, postlee sobranya.

I usually don't fall for stuff like this . . .

Fragment 1:

I have worked 2 jobs in the past 10 years where at least part of my job was being aware of fraud and fraudulent behavior. So when I received an e-mail today from UPS that said my package was coming and just to open an attachment to get the tracking #, I should have known better.

But for whatever reason I opened the attachment because from time to time I do have packages sent to me for products I am reviewing or free trials I see advertised. However, I should have noticed I was not addressed by name, nor was there any indication of my real address or anything like that.

Bottom Line: this was a malware scheme. The moment I opened the e-mail attachment my security system zapped it from here to Feliz Navidad. However, things could have been a lot worse. If you ever get an e-mail asking you to do anything even just open an attachment don't do it. The best thing to do before even opening a suspicious e-mail is google the subject. If I would have simply googled United Parcel Service Notification E-mail, I would have soon found out it was a scam and not even have to trust my security program to protect me.

Fragment 2: What do you get the Dad/Grandpa who has and/or gives away everything?

My Dad is a hard person to buy for. I have talked in these pages before about how his goal in life is to de-clutter by giving all his junk to his kids. On Monday I realized my Dad was coming over to fix things at my house the next day and the day after that was His birthday. I decided that the best thing to dp was throw him an impromptu surprise party. Bunny made a cake (Puppy and Spider Droid helped.) My Dad showed up slighltly after the cake came out of the oven so we moved it to the desk in my room where Bunny frosted it once it had cooled. I would go in there from time to time to check on Bunnies "Math".

On Tuesday night I saw that the first 100 primes were still written on a dry erase board from our history unit on Pythagoras. This gave me an idea. I rewrote the primes and stopped at 73 which is how old my Dad was. I then draped my Sox Throw (No it is not a 1919 reference) over the dry erase board.

After the cake was frosted. I took my Dad out to the shed to ask him some question. This of course was a ruse so Spider Droid could remove the throw revealing this . . .

Bunny and Puppy brought out the cake and we had a celebration.

Fragment 3: Rainbow connection on C.D.

Today, Puppy went in her room and saw a rainbow on her wall.

The sun was shining through the Window reflected on a c.d. on a bookshelf and the rainbow was visible on the ceiling.

Fragment 4: Crazy Video.

On Tuesday, I was helping Spider Droid make a power point presentation. I kind of went stir crazy and made this video . . .

Well that's all the fragments for today. click here to head back to Half Past Kissing Time.

They don't get Giving (up).

Another Wednesday, another Lenten observation.



Last Saturday it became abundantly clear to me that we were watching too much t.v. in the house. When I say watching t.v what I mean is watching videos and DVDs on our t.v and watching Internet shows on Hulu and other outlets and watching d.v.ds on the computer. We have not had the ability to watch broadcast t.v. since 2005. I also need to back up the truck and say that for the past month or so our television has not worked so when I said watching too much t.v. I meant watching too much computer. Whatever you call it we were all watching too much of it. On Saturday Puppy was going absolutely crazy as I was setting up a show for her. The girl had addict written all over her. She wasn't the only one. It seemed like all we did was have shows on. It became clear to me that something had to give



On our way out the door to a myriad of activities on Saturday I mentioned to Amy that starting immediately there would be no t.v. watching (or whatever it is we do.) until Friday night which is usually a family movie night for us. I had a speech already to give to kids. Amy in her wisdom, said don't tell the kids that there's no t.v. for the week. She thought that the kids would feel like they were being punished and in reality we were not taking privileges away due to bad behavior. She and I decided that of the kids asked to watch something we would just say no and suggest a different activity perhaps one that was less entertainment oriented.



This week Puppy has asked to watch a show about every 12 minutes, which is a little down for her. We just say no and move on.



The other kids have seemingly forgot about t.v. for the week. They both can earn a 1/2 hour a day with electronic media (either the computer or the d.s.) during the school day. Besides that 1/2 hour, the rest of their free time has been unplugged and they have really enjoyed each other. All 3 kids have been busy with puppet shows, playing with toys that have been long neglected and playing games like monopoly and mastermind. ALL this on a week that so far has not been fit for much if any outside free time.



Spider Droid did ask to watch a show tonight. But besides that neither one of them seems to notice they are giving up t.v. for the week. Like I said in the title, they don't get that they are giving up.



My title has a bit of a double if not triple meaning. I don't think that most people in my country get giving up. Think about it there are two times a year that we associate with giving up. One is New Years with it's new years resolutions and the other is Lent.

There are also two other reasons in our culture for doing without, conservation and the economy. But the truth is we don't need a calendar or a reason to practice giving up. We can do so at any time.



Our family likes to turn the t.v. off for the summer. It is a time with lessons over for the Summer and the family home for the summer that we can enjoy each other and the activities that a Midwest summer affords. A different time we ate only rice for a week to get an idea of how 1/2 the world lives.
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Your family might have other ideas for giving things up. It might be that you cut out all extra spending so you can throw a party. Whatever you do it can help bring your family closer together and to learn something in the process.



Another way that some people don't get giving up is in not understanding the reason for giving things up.

Hosea 6:6 says:
For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice,
And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. NASB

This reminds me of an anecdote from 11 or 12 years ago. Someone was telling me about how proud he was that His son and His son's girlfriend had given up on ice cream for lent. I found this particularly odd because at the time the couple was living together outside of marriage.

I tell that story not to seem judgemental but to punctuate that God wants our obedience more than our sacrifice. Giving things up doesn't make up for obvious flaws in our moral character.

Lent is an excellent time to give something up so we can start get a grasp on how much Christ gave up for us. I am just saying it should not be the only time.

P.S. watching our t.v. intake will get a little harder starting tomorrow, as my Dad fixed our t.v. and will bring it back in the morning.